{"id":31547,"date":"2025-06-22T18:48:55","date_gmt":"2025-06-22T18:48:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/?p=31547"},"modified":"2025-06-22T18:48:55","modified_gmt":"2025-06-22T18:48:55","slug":"spain-secures-opt-out-from-new-nato-spending-goal-says-sanchez","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/?p=31547","title":{"rendered":"Spain secures opt-out from new Nato spending goal, says S\u00e1nchez"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> \n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for free<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__content-sign-up-topic-description o3-type-body-base\">Your guide to what Trump\u2019s second term means for Washington, business and the world<\/p>\n<p><iframe class=\"article__content-sign-up-iframe close\" scrolling=\"no\" id=\"signUpIframe\" data-prev-url=\"\/register\/in-article-sign-up?ft-content-uuid=24a449fc-51ad-4b51-88cb-dd1e9df4deed&amp;newsletter-id=65b8fec772badb00166eafc6\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<div id=\"article-body\">\n<p>Prime Minister Pedro S\u00e1nchez said he had sealed a deal with Nato allowing Spain to opt out from a requirement to increase its defence spending to 5 per cent of GDP, the target demanded by US President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n<p>S\u00e1nchez announced the deal in an \u201curgent\u201d address to the Spanish people on Sunday, just days after he wrote a forthright letter to Nato secretary-general Mark Rutte <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/a8db875d-0c17-4f78-bd33-5faaf0903ad0\" data-trackable=\"link\">refusing to meet the new spending goal<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The Spanish premier, whose country was falling short of Nato\u2019s current target of 2 per cent of GDP, said the deal \u201csafeguards Spain\u2019s sovereignty while ensuring the success of the Nato summit\u201d due to take place on Wednesday in The Hague, where allies are expected to sign up to the new goal.<\/p>\n<p>S\u00e1nchez\u2019s announcement raises questions about what alliance members will agree at a meeting whose sole purpose was to show unity and commit to Trump\u2019s demand.<\/p>\n<p>A Nato official said: \u201cDiscussions have concluded and all allies have agreed to the statement which includes the new defence investment plan.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Nato decisions are only taken by consensus. S\u00e1nchez\u2019s opt-out rests on a change in the text from \u201cwe\u201d to \u201callies\u201d in the sentence referring to the pledge to spend 5 per cent of GDP on defence by 2035, said two officials involved in the negotiations.<\/p>\n<p>Calling the deal \u201cvery positive\u201d, the premier said: \u201cSpain is not going to spend 5 per cent of its GDP on defence, but its participation, weight and legitimacy in Nato remain intact, with all the duties, and all the rights, that entails.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>S\u00e1nchez\u2019s announcement will also make the discussion awkward for other defence spending laggards such as Italy, Belgium and Portugal, which will also struggle to meet the 5 per cent target.<\/p>\n<p>The Spanish premier made the announcement as a swirl of corruption allegations have roiled his government. They include claims that one of his closest former aides, Santos Cerd\u00e1n, took kickbacks from a construction company. Cerd\u00e1n denies wrongdoing.<\/p>\n<p>On the Nato deal, S\u00e1nchez said: \u201cWe have achieved this through discreet, effective, honest and fair diplomatic negotiation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He argued that Spain would be able to meet all its obligations to Nato, including personnel, military hardware and infrastructure, by spending the equivalent of 2.1 per cent of its GDP on defence \u2014 \u201cno more, no less\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>S\u00e1nchez said: \u201cFor the Spanish government, it makes no sense to commit to spending 5 per cent of GDP on defence because doing so would force us to break our word, to squander billions of euros and, paradoxically, it would not make us safer or a better [Nato] ally.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The prime minister announced in April a \u20ac10bn plan to boost Spain\u2019s spending to 2 per cent this year.<\/p>\n<p>Spain, a country with a strong pacifist streak, has led behind-the-scenes resistance to a rush to increase European defence spending even further under pressure from Trump, but its opposition burst into the open last week with the publication of Sanchez\u2019s letter to Rutte.<\/p>\n<p>In the letter the premier asked that \u200b\u200bSpain be excluded from the application of any new spending target agreed next week, or that Nato use a more flexible formula that \u201cmakes the spending target optional\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGoing from 2 per cent to 5 per cent,\u201d he said on Sunday, \u201cwould force us to cross our red lines, would force us to either have to drastically raise taxes on the middle class, or severely cut the size of our welfare state.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/24a449fc-51ad-4b51-88cb-dd1e9df4deed\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for free Your guide to what Trump\u2019s second term means for Washington,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":31548,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31547","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","cs-entry","cs-video-wrap"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31547","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31547"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31547\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/31548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}