Spain wants exemption from NATO’s 5 percent defense spending target – POLITICO
www.politico.eu

NATO allies will meet in The Hague next week and are expected to agree to significantly boost military expenditure, but Madrid is reluctant.

Spain wants a carve-out from NATO’s likely future defense spending goal of 5 percent of GDP, the country’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said ahead of next week’s high-stakes alliance summit in The Hague.

“Spain will continue to fulfil its duty in the years and decades ahead and will continue to actively contribute to the European security architecture. However, Spain cannot commit to a specific spending target in terms of GDP at this summit,” Sánchez told NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte in a letter seen by POLITICO.

Spain has the lowest military spending of any NATO member, allocating just 1.3 percent of its GDP to defense in 2024. Sánchez said earlier this year that Russia didn’t pose an immediate security threat to Spain.

  • Justin@lemmy.jlh.nameEnglish
    231·
    2 days ago

    That is not the argument stated in the article

    Sánchez argued that Spain doesn’t need to spend 5 percent of its GDP to fulfill its so-called capability targets, meaning new objectives of weapons inventory agreed by NATO defense ministers earlier this month.

    He also wrote that a 5 percent defense spending goal would jeopardize the country’s welfare system, force the government to increase taxes on the middle class, scale back commitments to the green transition and curtail international development cooperation.

    “It is the legitimate right of every government to decide whether or not they are willing to make those sacrifices,” he wrote.

    Rushing to 5 percent would also force Madrid to buy off-the-shelf equipment instead of fostering its own industrial base, as well as take money away from welfare policies, Sánchez also wrote.

    The Spanish Socialist party is in a coalition with the junior left-wing Sumar party, which opposes increased defense spending and whose members are expected to attend a counter-summit for peace in parallel to the NATO summit.

    • Renohren@lemmy.todayEnglish
      93·
      2 days ago

      France is deep in public debt ( if they weren’t in the EU, the world bank and IMF would have already stepped on the breaks) yet still makes the stupid 5% promise because that’s what it is: a statement towards Russia.

      • Synapse@lemmy.worldEnglish
        112·
        2 days ago

        Yeah, Macron and previous governments are also very interested in dismantling entirely the welfare state, all kinds of public services, public healthcare, retirement pensions, culture. Of course he is happy to push the military budget, this will make his rich friends richer and happier. This defense budget and military inventory won’t do any good once it falls into the hands of fascist that are aligned with Putin!

        • Renohren@lemmy.todayEnglish
          7·
          1 day ago

          He did nationalise the electric and nuclear giant EDF, the french state did buy a majority share in Eutelsat. So it’s not as clear cut a situation as it seems.

          • Synapse@lemmy.worldEnglish
            5·
            1 day ago

            Re-nationalise. First thing he did is to cut the tax for the most wealthy and second is to ask everyone else to work longer for worst retirement pension. And it’s under his presidency and government that the French economy as tanked so low. Not that the predecessor didn’t have their share of the blame, though. In the end, these guys are delighted to have a fresh new excuse to push forward with austerity and ultraliberal measures and cut everything remaining of social en cultural welfare.