Trump regularly criticized European NATO nations for failing to fulfill the 2% GDP defense spending benchmark during his first term in office.
Following criticism from US President Donald Trump for Madrid’s lack of financial contributions to the defense alliance, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez declared on Wednesday that Spain is a “reliable partner” in NATO.
In an interview with CNBC from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Sanchez stated that Spain had raised its defense budget by 70% in the past ten years. while its 30% investment in new weapons exceeded the 20% required by NATO.
“Well above the average” is another way Sanchez described that Spanish army’s involvement NATO operations.
“We are a reliable partner and I think you have to look more broadly to see if a country is committed or not with the security of NATO’s allies”, Sanchez stated.
At a summit in The Hague this summer, NATO partners will talk about raising defense expenditure requirements from the existing objective of 2% of GDP. Trump demands that all NATO members increase their contributions to 5% of GDP, a goal that is now unmet.
According to NATO data, Spain spent $22.27 billion on defense in 2024, ranking 10th in terms of absolute defense spending among the 31 NATO members. However, this represents the lowest relative defense spending, at an estimated 1.28% of GDP. Preliminary NATO data indicates that the United States spent 3.38% of its GDP on defense last year.
Speaking on Monday, Trump responded, “Spain is very low”, in reference to its NATO commitments. But he also made the incorrect claim that Spain was a part of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) group of developing countries.
