Eduardo González
US President Donald Trump took advantage of his attendance at the NATO Summit in Ankara on Wednesday to again threaten Spain with trade sanctions for its refusal to increase its defense spending to five percent. For his part, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte highlighted the “great strides” made by Spain in military spending, and the Spanish government reiterated that trade relations are channeled through the European Union.
“I haven’t spoken to Spain. Spain is a wasted cause,” Trump declared during the joint press conference with Rutte before the start of the Summit. “We don’t want to do any more trade with Spain. I would like them to cut it off,” he continued. “Spain is a terrible partner in NATO. They don’t participate, they don’t pay. I don’t want anything to do with Spain. Cut off all trade with Spain, please, even visits,” he insisted. “They make a lot of money off us, and we’re going to see them make a lot less. I don’t want to do any business with them,” he reiterated.
At the same press conference, Mark Rutte made a slight allusion to Spain. “They took a big step last year,” he asserted. “There are problems we have to solve, but Spain has reached two percent,” he added.
In any case, Spain was not the only target of Trump’s ire, who also lashed out at the Alliance as a whole: “I’m not happy with NATO for what they did to Greenland, and I’m not happy with NATO for not wanting to help us against the number one sponsor of terrorism in the United States, Iran.”
Government sources cited by the media have stated that the Executive Branch receives Trump’s words with “calm and normality” and have reiterated that the European Union is a “trade union” in which no member state “can be singled out.” Government spokesperson Elma Saiz, speaking on TVE’s ‘Mañaneros’ program, reiterated that Spain’s trade relationship is with the entire EU, “as the European Commission has clearly stated.” Minister for Digital Transformation and Public Administration Óscar López insisted that Washington “cannot take any action against an EU country” because that would imply acting “against the entire European Union.”
Trump issued similar threats exactly one year ago, following the NATO Summit in The Hague, when he asserted that he would impose “double” tariffs on Spain because of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s decision to deviate from the obligation to allocate five percent of GDP to defense spending, thereby contravening the Summit’s final declaration.
