Spain rejects NATO’s anticipated 5% defense spending proposal as
'unreasonable'
[June 20, 2025]
By SUMAN NAISHADHAM and LORNE COOK
MADRID (AP) — Spain has rejected a NATO proposal to spend 5% of gross
domestic product on defense needs that’s due to be announced next week,
calling it “unreasonable.”
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, in a letter sent on Thursday to NATO
Secretary-General Mark Rutte, said that Spain “cannot commit to a
specific spending target in terms of GDP” at next week’s NATO summit in
The Hague, Netherlands.
Any agreement to adopt a new spending guideline must be made with the
consensus of all 32 NATO member states. So Sánchez's decision risks
derailing next week's summit, which U.S. President Donald Trump is due
to attend, and creating a last-minute shakeup that could have lingering
repercussions.
Most U.S. allies in NATO are on track to endorse Trump’s demand that
they invest 5% of GDP on their defense and military needs. In early
June, Sweden and the Netherlands said that they aim to meet the new
target.
A NATO official on Thursday said that discussions between allies were
ongoing about a new defense spending plan.
“For Spain, committing to a 5% target would not only be unreasonable,
but also counterproductive, as it would move Spain away from optimal
spending and it would hinder the EU’s ongoing efforts to strengthen its
security and defense ecosystem,” Sánchez wrote in the letter seen by The
Associated Press.
Spain was the lowest spender in the trans-Atlantic alliance last year,
directing less than 2% of its GDP on defense expenditure.
Sánchez said in April that the government would raise defense spending
by 10.5 billion euros ($12 billion) in 2025 to reach NATO’s previous
target of 2% of GDP.
On Thursday, Sánchez called for “a more flexible formula” in relation to
a new spending target — one that either made it optional or left Spain
out of its application.
Sánchez wrote that the country is “fully committed to NATO," but that
meeting a 5% target “would be incompatible with our welfare state and
our world vision." He said that doing so would require cutting public
services and scaling back other spending, including toward the green
transition.
Instead, Spain will need to spend 2.1% of GDP to meet the Spanish
military’s estimated defense needs, Sánchez said.
At home, corruption scandals that have ensnared Sánchez's inner circle
and family members have put the Spanish leader under increasing pressure
to call an early election, even from some allies.
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Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez speaks during a press
conference at the Spanish Embassy in Beijing, April 11, 2025. (AP
Photo/Ng Han Guan, File)
Increased military spending is also unpopular among some of
Sanchez's coalition partners. In April, when Sánchez announced that
Spain would reach NATO's previous 2% spending target, the move
angered some coalition members further to the left of his Socialist
Party.
NATO allies agreed to spend 2% of GDP on military expenditure after
Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022.
But the alliance's plans for defending Europe and North America
against a Russian attack require investments of at least 3%.
The aim now is to raise the bar to 3.5% for core defense spending on
tanks, warplanes, air defense, missiles and hiring extra troops. A
further 1.5% would be spent on things like roads, bridges, ports and
airfields so armies can deploy more quickly, as well as preparing
societies for possible attack.
Several allies have committed to reaching the new spending goal,
even though other nations will struggle to find the billions
required.
Rutte had been due to table a new proposal on Friday aimed at
satisfying Spain and trying to break the deadlock. European allies
and Canada want to end the standoff before the leaders meet with
Trump on Wednesday.
Poland and the Baltic countries — Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania —
have already publicly committed to 5%, and Rutte has said that most
allies were ready to endorse the goal.
But Spain isn't alone among NATO's low spenders. Belgium, Canada and
Italy will also struggle to hike security spending by billions of
dollars.
A big question still to be answered is what time frame countries
will be given to reach an agreed-upon new spending goal.
A target date of 2032 was initially floated, but Rutte has said that
Russia could be ready to launch an attack on NATO territory by 2030.
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