<h6><strong>Eduardo González</strong></h6> <h4><strong>The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, has asked NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte that the declaration of the NATO Summit, to be held in The Hague on June 24 and 25, include "a more flexible formula" that would allow "Spain to be excluded from the application of the spending target" of 5% for defense, an "exception" that, he asserted, has been made in the past "with other allies."</strong></h4> Sánchez made this proposal in a letter addressed to Rutte this Thursday, which The Diplomat and Aquí Europa have had access to. In it, he explains why Spain is not in a position to reach 5% of GDP in defense spending. Mark Rutte himself has presented a plan, in view of the Summit and based on a proposal by US President Donald Trump, to reach that percentage by 2032 with a sustained annual increase that countries must declare and comply with. According to Sánchez, “Spain is fully committed to NATO.” “In recent years, it has been the fourth NATO country with the highest average annual increase in defense spending, reaching 2 percent of its GDP in 2015, and is currently present in Alliance’s missions with thousands of military personnel and top-notch equipment,” he continued. “I want to assure you that Spain will continue to fulfill its obligations in the years and decades ahead and will continue to actively contribute to the European security architecture,” but “Spain cannot commit to a specific spending target in terms of GDP at this Summit for three fundamental reasons,” he asserted. <h5><strong>“Some countries will need 5%, but 2% is sufficient for Spain”</strong></h5> “First, because it is not necessary to fulfill our commitments to the Alliance,” he explained. “As you know, NATO’s Capability Targets are established through a standardized, transparent, and traceable process. Every four years, the Strategic Commands identifies the Minimum Capability Requirements the Alliance will need to fulfill its mission in the years ahead, and develops a Capability Tarrget package for each Ally with specific goals and timelines,” the Chief Executive continued. “Current capability package has been approved by our Defense ministers in June 2025 and will remain valid at least until the end of the decade,” he added. “Different countries will need to invest different amounts to achieve them. Some will need to reach 5 percent of their GDP. Others, less. And such asymmetry should be by all means respected, among other reasons, because it is embedded in NATO's very operating principles, and because it stems from a series of economic factors (e.g., labor and production costs) that have nothing to do with the level of commitment of each Ally towards our collective defense,” he warned. "Spain, in particular," Pedro Sánchez stated, "will require a 2,1% expenditure, according to its military’s estimates, an investment that will be sufficient to acquire and maintain all the personnel, equipment, and infrastructure requested by the Alliance." <h5><strong>Development of its own military industry</strong></h5> “For Spain, committing to a 5 percent target not only be unreasonable, but also counterproductive, as it would Spain further away from optimal spending and it would hinder the EU's ongoing efforts to strengthen its security and defense ecosystem,” Sánchez explained. “This is, in fact, the second reason: we agree that the EU needs to help Allies improve their interoperability, procurement process and industrial base to contribute more decisively to deterring Russia and rebalancing the transatlantic defense burden, without forgetting threats coming from the Southern flank.” However, “to make real progress, we will require some time and maneuvering space, and I fear that a rushed 5% increase would harm this process in two ways,” he warned. “By rushing Spain into off-the-self purchases," specifically from "non-European suppliers," it would impede the development of its “own industrial base" and increase "the current diversion of European savings to foreign markets, adding around €100 billion to the €300 billion already transfer annually." Furthermore, this defense spending target could slow down “our economic growth through debt increase, inflationary pressures, and the diversion of investment from crucial activities with a higher multiplier effect than the defense industry, e.g., education, healthcare, and digital technology." "If we truly want to increase real spending in a sustained way, our main goal should be to ensure that our economies grow substantially in the coming years, and to achieve this, we must find the right balance between boosting our defense capabilities and boosting our overall economic competitiveness," he added. <h5><strong>Welfare State and “world vision”</strong></h5> “A third and final reason that prevents Spain from committing to the 5 percent target,” Pedro Sánchez continued, “is that such a level of spending could be incompatible with our Welfare State and our world vision.” “The reality is that, for Spain, as for other NATO countries, achieving 5% defense spending will be impossible unless it comes at the cost of increasing taxes to the middle class, cutting public services and social benefits for their citizens, and scaling back their commitment to the green transition and international development cooperation,” he added. “It is the legitimate right of every government to decide whether or not they are willing to make those sacrifices. As a sovereign Ally, we choose not to. We choose to strike a balance between the need to increase defense spenditure and the need to address the other social, economic, and environmental challenges that both our world and our citizens face,” he asserted. “In the current context, and in accordance with the Capability Targets recently agreed with NATO, for us that balance means allocating 2% of our GDP to defense and security, while we continue to invest in diplomacy, trade, welfare policies, and development aid,” he warned. <h5><strong>The exception for Spain</strong></h5> “Of course, it is not our intention to limit the spending ambitions of other Allies or to obstruct the outcomes of the upcoming Summit,” Pedro Sánchez stated. “That is why I am simply requesting the inclusion of a more flexible formula in this year's declaration, one that recognizes each Ally's path to achieving their respective Capability Targets and makes the spending target optional, or one that excludes Spain from the application of the spending target,” he stated. “Similar exceptions have been made in the past for other Allies, and there are many compelling reasons to do so now. The formula I am suggesting would allow us to preserve the 5 percent target in the declaration for those Allies that need or want to pursue it,” he concluded.
