<h6><strong>Eduardo González</strong></h6> <h4><strong>The Secretary General of NATO, Mark Rutte, warned this Monday the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, of the “urgent need” to increase spending on defense and the head of the Executive conveyed to him “the firm commitment of our country to reach two percent of investment in defense by 2029” and that Spain is “the third ally” that has increased spending the most in this area in the last decade.</strong></h4> Rutte was received by Sánchez at the La Moncloa Complex within the framework of a tour of Spain and Portugal, in which he also met with the Portuguese president, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, and the prime minister of this country, Luís Montenegro. During the meeting, according to Moncloa, Sánchez told Rutte that “Spain is a serious, responsible and committed ally within NATO, supportive in its contributions to the Alliance's missions and operations,” and stressed “our country's firm commitment to reach two percent investment in defense by 2029.” Pedro Sánchez explained to the Secretary General that Spain has increased defense spending by 70 percent in the last decade, being “the third allied country that has increased it the most.” Likewise, the President of the Government warned that security “goes beyond defense spending” and specified that “Spain is among the first ten contributors in absolute defense spending.” In reference to the commitments made in Wales, Sánchez assured that Spain is “the first in percentage of defense spending on operations, allocating almost ten times more than the average of the allies.” He also recalled that Spain participates in all the main NATO missions. “It was a pleasure to visit Madrid to meet with Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez,” the Dutch leader said on social media. “Spain plays an important role in our shared security,” he continued. “We talked about support for Ukraine, as well as our deterrence and defense and the urgent need to invest more now,” he added. During his meetings in Madrid and Lisbon, according to a press release from NATO, Mark Rutte stressed the need to spend more on defense and welcomed, in this regard, the recent increases in defense spending by Portugal and Spain. However, he warned that the two percent target set a decade ago “will not be enough to meet the challenges of tomorrow.” <h5><strong>Albares</strong></h5> Hours before this meeting, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, declared to the media, before participating in the EU Foreign Affairs Council (FAC) in Brussels, that Spain is “one of the most important allies that the organisation has” and recalled “Spain's commitment to Euro-Atlantic security”, with “2,700 Spanish soldiers deployed in all scenarios”, “We are providing security to the Baltic countries, with aviation, in countries that lack aviation. We are present in Slovakia, in Romania, we are with ships in the Black Sea, we are in more distant scenarios, such as Turkey or Iraq”, he continued. According to Albares, “Spain has very clearly established a time horizon, which is 2029, to reach two percent, which is what is currently set in NATO as defense spending.” In addition, he assured, “Spain is the eighth largest contributor in absolute values to Euro-Atlantic security” and “it is not the only country that does not reach two percent, there are ten countries within NATO.”
