NATO asks Spain and other allied countries to reach 5% military spending in seven years | Spain
The NATO general secretary, Mark Rutte, has asked Spain and other allied countries to commit to 5% of their Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to military spending within seven years; that is, in 2032. These funds would be broken down into 3.5% for strictly military investment and another 1.5% in infrastructure of interest for defense, according to Spanish government sources. This was put on the table at the meeting that the EU defense ministers held on Tuesday in Brussels, which was attended by Rutte himself.
Initially, he had proposed to increase the military expenditure of the allies up to 3.5% of GDP, but the US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, has made it very clear that the target of the Trump administration is 5%. With this mixed formula, NATO general secretary aims to content Washington and, at the same time, reassuring the most remiss countries to this strong increase in military spending. While East Allies support this strong increase in defense spending, those in the South are « with water around the neck, » the sources consulted allege.
Among the latter is Spain, for whom this percentage of GDP would involve an effort of 82,807 million euros at current prices. The only thing that Rutte has flexible is in lengthening the fulfillment period, which was initially five years and concluded in 2030, and now he has extended it to seven, placing it two years later.
The NATO Secretary General took last week that Spain will meet the 5% goalbut the sources consulted underline that what he meant is that he will meet the objective that is set at the Summit of The Hague (Netherlands), on June 24. In any case, to this summit, the first one attended by Donald Trump from his return to the White House, everything will arrive cooking, unlike in previous appointments, his format has been reduced to a minimum: a gala dinner offered by the hosts, the kings Guillermo Alejandro and Máxima, and a morning work session of the 32 allied leaders.
Spain defends that the needs that NATO must meet to guarantee its defense should be established before setting the percentage of the GDP necessary to cover them. The same sources add that at this time the problem is not so much of lack of budget of the allied countries as of the capacity of the military industry to meet a shot demand. As an example, they emphasize that the United States has already reported that it will not be able to supply the new modernized patriot missiles in four years that the Spanish Ministry of Defense has commissioned, because there is a long waiting list.
The Council of Ministers has given green light to a Injection of 10,471 million euros to reach 2% of military spending GDP This same year, but industrial sources admit that there is no technical capacity to execute such a large investment in such a short period of time. In any case, the sources consulted take for granted that Spain will fulfill the commitment of military spending that is agreed at the Summit of The Hague, as it has done with the one that was set in the quote of Wales in 2014, although it has been with a year late.
Embargo approved by Congress
On the other hand, the Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, said on Wednesday in Congress that Spain « does not buy any weapons » to Israel, although it has admitted that there may be « some licenses (of Israeli origin) of some programs that are used by the national industries and are very previous to October 7 » of 2023, when the terrorist attack of Hamas that triggered the current escalation of violence was produced.
Sources from his department have underlined The difficulty of dispensing with these licenses, for which in some cases there is no technical alternative. « The defense market is globalized and, if a component does not arrive directly from Israel, it will do it through third countries that incorporate it into its products, » they claim.
Robles did not want to pronounce on the content of The Proposition of the Law on the Reform of the Export Control Law of Defense and Double Use Material and that, if approved in its current terms, the automatic embargo would mean in the sale of military material to countries prosecuted for crimes against humanity by an international court with jurisdiction in Spain, as is the case now of Israel. « Our commitment to the Palestinian people are total and absolute and that affects all areas, » said Robles, who stressed that the relevance of the Congress’s decision is above all politics, without hiding the difficulties of their eventual application.
Although Robles has not listed them, the Ministry of Defense has some important programs underway with technology under Israeli license, such as multiple Silam raccor, for 576 million euros; the spike antiacere missiles for 237.5 million; or the laser designators for combat aircraft by 207. In addition, there are many other contracts, some of them in sectors such as cybersecurity, where Israeli industry is one of the most leading in the world.
Sources from his department have recalled that Robles was the first government member who He described as « authentic genocide » Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, During the celebration of the Day of the Armed Forces last year in Oviedo, which then won harsh criticism.
