Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez will attend the Nato summit in The Hague on Tuesday having rejected defence spending targets set by the organisation and US president Donald Trump and as he attempts to fend off damaging scandals at home.
On Sunday, Sánchez said his government had reached “a historic agreement” with Nato that would allow the country to be exempt from the new defence spending target for members of 5 per cent of GDP.
The deal, the prime minister said, meant Spain would “contribute in a way that is proportional to its abilities, without having to increase its defence spending” or reach the 5 per cent benchmark.
Spain was the lowest spender on defence as a proportion of its economy in Nato in 2024, according to the organisation, which estimated that the country’s outlay was below 1.3 per cent of GDP. Sánchez has already committed to increasing military spending to at least 2 per cent of GDP this year and suggested that could be enough to meet “capability targets” required by Nato.
The government made public a letter to the prime minister from Nato secretary general Mark Rutte in which he said the agreement “will give Spain the flexibility to determine its own sovereign path for reaching the capability target goal and the annual resources necessary as a share of GDP and to submit its own annual plans”.
But on Monday, Rutte played down the notion that Spain had secured an exemption.
“Nato does not have as an alliance opt-outs, side deals, etc, because we all have to chip in,” he said.
He added that Nato was “absolutely convinced” that Spain would have to end up spending 3.5 per cent on pure defence, in line with other member countries.
Nonetheless, the accord appears to have defused tensions after the Spanish stance had threatened to create an impasse at the summit.
However, it is not yet clear how the United States will respond. At the weekend, Trump said Spain had been “notorious” for paying relatively little.
“I think Spain has to pay what everybody else has to pay,” he said.
Domestic considerations seem to be playing a role in Sánchez’s dealings with Nato. Earlier this month, his Socialist Party number three, Santos Cerdán, was implicated in an investigation into kickbacks for public contracts, causing him to be expelled from the party and forcing the prime minister to issue an apology to Spaniards. With other damaging investigations under way, the defence spending issue provides him with a welcome distraction on the international stage.
With his refusal to meet the Nato defence spending target, noted political commentator Enric Juliana, “Sánchez can remobilise a demobilised socialist electoral base” and “use it as a banner with which to get out of a tight spot, if indeed there is a way out”.
In addition, Sánchez’s political weakness gives more bargaining power to his parliamentary allies, whose support he will need if his government is to survive the turmoil. Some of them, such as the Sumar party to his left, have been vocal about the need to cap defence spending.
