During a visit to Spain this week, NATO's secretary general urged member states to increase military spending in the face of the threat from Russia. Spain spends less on defense compared to the size of its economy. As VOA's Henry Ridgwell reports, US President Donald Trump has singled out Madrid for failing to meet NATO's defense spending target.
Spain is the eurozone's fourth-largest economy. However, the country is at the bottom of the list when it comes to defense spending in the 32-member NATO alliance.
Madrid spent about $21.3 billion on defense last year, or 1.28% of its Gross Domestic Product, despite a NATO pledge made in 2014 to spend at least 2%.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte visited Spain and Portugal this week and made this warning.
"The goal of spending 2% of Gross Domestic Product on defense, adopted a decade ago, will not be enough to meet the challenges of tomorrow. The threat from Russia may seem distant, but I assure you it is not," said Mr. Rutte.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said Spain is committed to reaching the 2% target by 2029. He said defense spending had increased by 70% over the past decade. Sanchez added that Madrid, overall, was the 10th largest contributor to NATO.
Spanish troops also help train Ukrainian forces as Kiev fights Russian aggression.
However, this is unlikely to seem sufficient to NATO's largest contributor, the United States, which in 2024 spent 3.38 percent of its Gross Domestic Product on defense.
President Trump described Spain's contribution to NATO as "very low." He also called for an increase in defense spending targets.
"I will ask all NATO countries to increase defense spending to 5% of Gross Domestic Product, a goal that should have been achieved years ago," President Trump said.
He has long complained that European allies are taking advantage of the United States and says they should take on some of the burden of defense spending.
However, analyst Pere Ortega says the 5% target is unrealistic for Spain.
"This would mean that Spain would spend almost 65 billion euros. We do not have that economic capacity. To achieve this spending on defense, in some way, the social security sphere would have to be sacrificed. The Spaniards would punish this with their vote during the elections," says Mr. Ortega of the Madrid-based Delàs Center for Peace Studies.
President Trump, however, has found support from Lithuania, which announced this month that it will increase defense spending to 5 or 6% of GDP by 2026.
"We are adapting to the NATO defense plan, which is of vital importance for our region," said Lithuanian Defense Minister Dovilė Šakalienė.
At his first NATO summit as President of the United States, in 2017, Donald Trump chided allies for failing to spend enough on defense.
European allies, especially Spain, are prepared to face further demands at the next meeting of member state leaders, to be held in The Hague in June./ VOA (A2 Televizion)
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