Spain rejects Nato's five percent target

Sánchez wrote that an increase in defense spending to a total of five percent of GDP by 2032, as proposed, would be "not only unreasonable, but even counterproductive" for his country. This is why it will not be possible to "commit to a specific spending target (...)" at next week's NATO summit in The Hague.

This statement by Sánchez comes as no surprise. At the end of May, Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares emphasized at a joint press conference during a visit by his German counterpart Johann Wadephul (CDU) that Spain was making greater efforts in the defence sector than ever before. The existing NATO target of two percent GDP is "realistic".

Madrid speaks of a "big mistake"

Meanwhile, Defense Minister Margarita Robles even described the NATO plans as a "big mistake". "We believe that the process cannot consist of first setting a percentage and then determining the capabilities, it has to be the other way around."

With military spending of around 1.3 percent of GDP, Spain is one of the biggest laggards in the alliance. In April, however, the left-wing government announced that it wanted to reach the two percent target this year. This was actually not planned until 2029. Madrid wants to spend an additional 10.5 billion euros on this, around 50 percent more than before.