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Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said he had sealed a deal with Nato allowing Spain to opt out from a requirement to increase its defence spending to 5 per cent of GDP, the target demanded by US President Donald Trump.
Sánchez announced the deal in an “urgent” address to the Spanish people on Sunday, just days after he wrote a forthright letter to Nato secretary-general Mark Rutte refusing to meet the new spending goal.
The Spanish premier, whose country was falling short of Nato’s current target of 2 per cent of GDP, said the deal “safeguards Spain’s sovereignty while ensuring the success of the Nato summit” due to take place on Wednesday in The Hague, where allies are expected to sign up to the new goal.
Sánchez’s announcement raises questions about what alliance members will agree at a meeting whose sole purpose was to show unity and commit to Trump’s demand.
A Nato official said: “Discussions have concluded and all allies have agreed to the statement which includes the new defence investment plan.”
Nato decisions are only taken by consensus. Sánchez’s opt-out rests on a change in the text from “we” to “allies” in the sentence referring to the pledge to spend 5 per cent of GDP on defence by 2035, said two officials involved in the negotiations.
Calling the deal “very positive”, the premier said: “Spain is not going to spend 5 per cent of its GDP on defence, but its participation, weight and legitimacy in Nato remain intact, with all the duties, and all the rights, that entails.”
Sánchez’s announcement will also make the discussion awkward for other defence spending laggards such as Italy, Belgium and Portugal, which will also struggle to meet the 5 per cent target.
The Spanish premier made the announcement as a swirl of corruption allegations have roiled his government. They include claims that one of his closest former aides, Santos Cerdán, took kickbacks from a construction company. Cerdán denies wrongdoing.
On the Nato deal, Sánchez said: “We have achieved this through discreet, effective, honest and fair diplomatic negotiation.”
He argued that Spain would be able to meet all its obligations to Nato, including personnel, military hardware and infrastructure, by spending the equivalent of 2.1 per cent of its GDP on defence — “no more, no less”.
Sánchez said: “For the Spanish government, it makes no sense to commit to spending 5 per cent of GDP on defence because doing so would force us to break our word, to squander billions of euros and, paradoxically, it would not make us safer or a better [Nato] ally.”
The prime minister announced in April a €10bn plan to boost Spain’s spending to 2 per cent this year.
Spain, a country with a strong pacifist streak, has led behind-the-scenes resistance to a rush to increase European defence spending even further under pressure from Trump, but its opposition burst into the open last week with the publication of Sanchez’s letter to Rutte.
In the letter the premier asked that Spain be excluded from the application of any new spending target agreed next week, or that Nato use a more flexible formula that “makes the spending target optional”.
“Going from 2 per cent to 5 per cent,” he said on Sunday, “would force us to cross our red lines, would force us to either have to drastically raise taxes on the middle class, or severely cut the size of our welfare state.”
