MADRID: Spain has rejected a NATO proposal to spend 5 percent of gross domestic product on defense needs that’s due to be announced next week, calling it “unreasonable.”
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, in a letter sent on Thursday to NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, said that Spain “cannot commit to a specific spending target in terms of GDP” at next week’s NATO summit in The Hague, Netherlands.
Any agreement to adopt a new spending guideline must be made with the consensus of all 32 NATO member states. So Sánchez’s decision risks derailing next week’s summit, which US President Donald Trump is due to attend, and creating a last-minute shakeup that could have lingering repercussions.
Most US allies in NATO are on track to endorse Trump’s demand that they invest 5 percent of GDP on their defense and military needs. In early June, Sweden and the Netherlands said that they aim to meet the new target.
A NATO official on Thursday said that discussions between allies were ongoing about a new defense spending plan.
“For Spain, committing to a 5 percent target would not only be unreasonable, but also counterproductive, as it would move Spain away from optimal spending and it would hinder the EU’s ongoing efforts to strengthen its security and defense ecosystem,” Sánchez wrote in the letter seen by The Associated Press.
Spain was the lowest spender in the trans-Atlantic alliance last year, directing less than 2 percent of its GDP on defense expenditure.
Sánchez said in April that the government would raise defense spending by 10.5 billion euros ($12 billion) in 2025 to reach NATO’s previous target of 2 percent of GDP.
On Thursday, Sánchez called for “a more flexible formula” in relation to a new spending target — one that either made it optional or left Spain out of its application.
Sánchez wrote that the country is “fully committed to NATO,” but that meeting a 5 percent target “would be incompatible with our welfare state and our world vision.” He said that doing so would require cutting public services and scaling back other spending, including toward the green transition.
Instead, Spain will need to spend 2.1 percent of GDP to meet the Spanish military’s estimated defense needs, Sánchez said.
At home, corruption scandals that have ensnared Sánchez’s inner circle and family members have put the Spanish leader under increasing pressure to call an early election, even from some allies.
Increased military spending is also unpopular among some of Sanchez’s coalition partners. In April, when Sánchez announced that Spain would reach NATO’s previous 2 percent spending target, the move angered some coalition members further to the left of his Socialist Party.
NATO allies agreed to spend 2 percent of GDP on military expenditure after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022. But the alliance’s plans for defending Europe and North America against a Russian attack require investments of at least 3 percent.
The aim now is to raise the bar to 3.5 percent for core defense spending on tanks, warplanes, air defense, missiles and hiring extra troops. A further 1.5 percent would be spent on things like roads, bridges, ports and airfields so armies can deploy more quickly, as well as preparing societies for possible attack.
Several allies have committed to reaching the new spending goal, even though other nations will struggle to find the billions required.
Rutte had been due to table a new proposal on Friday aimed at satisfying Spain and trying to break the deadlock. European allies and Canada want to end the standoff before the leaders meet with Trump on Wednesday.
Poland and the Baltic countries — Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania — have already publicly committed to 5 percent, and Rutte has said that most allies were ready to endorse the goal.
But Spain isn’t alone among NATO’s low spenders. Belgium, Canada and Italy will also struggle to hike security spending by billions of dollars.
A big question still to be answered is what time frame countries will be given to reach an agreed-upon new spending goal.
A target date of 2032 was initially floated, but Rutte has said that Russia could be ready to launch an attack on NATO territory by 2030.
Spain rejects NATO’s anticipated 5% defense spending proposal as ‘unreasonable’
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Spain rejects NATO’s anticipated 5% defense spending proposal as ‘unreasonable’
- Most US allies in NATO are on track to endorse Trump’s demand that they invest 5 percent of GDP on defense and military needs
- But Spanish PM Sánchez’s decision risks derailing next week’s NATO summit, which could have lingering repercussions
Kosovo voters cast ballots in a second attempt this year to elect a government and avoid more crisis
Kosovo voters cast ballots in a second attempt this year to elect a government and avoid more crisis
- The prime minister’s party is again the favorite in the race, but it is unclear whether it will manage to muster a majority this time in the 120-member parliament
PRISTINA: Voters in Kosovo cast ballots on Sunday in an early parliamentary election in hopes of breaking a political deadlock that has gripped the small Balkan nation for much of this year.
The snap vote was scheduled after Prime Minister Albin Kurti’s governing Vetevendosje, or Self-Determination, party failed to form a government despite winning the most votes in a Feb. 9 election.
The deadlock marked the first time Kosovo could not form a government since it declared independence from Serbia in 2008 following a 1998-99 war that ended in a NATO intervention.
The prime minister’s party is again the favorite in the race, but it is unclear whether it will manage to muster a majority this time in the 120-member parliament, after other mainstream parties refused an alliance.
According to Kosovo’s election laws, 20 parliamentary seats are automatically assigned to ethnic Serb representatives and other minority parties.
Another inconclusive vote would further deepen the crisis. Kosovo has already not approved a budget for next year, sparking fears of possible negative effects on the already poor economy in the country of 2 million people.
Lawmakers are set to elect a new president in March as current President Vjosa Osmani’s mandate expires in early April. If this fails too, another snap election must be held.
The main opposition parties are the Democratic League of Kosovo and the Democratic Party of Kosovo. They have accused Kurti of authoritarianism and of alienating Kosovo’s US and European Union allies since he came to power in 2021.
A former political prisoner during Serbia’s rule in Kosovo, the 50-year-old Kurti has taken a tough stand in talks mediated by the European Union on normalizing relations with Belgrade. In response, the EU and the United States imposed punitive measures.
Kurti has promised to buy military equipment to boost security.
No reliable pre-election polls have been published. Kurti’s party at the previous election won around 42 percent of the votes while the two main rival parties had together around 40 percent.
Analysts say that even the slightest changes in numbers on Sunday could prove decisive for the future distribution of power but that nothing is certain.
Tensions with restive ethnic Serbs in the north exploded in clashes in 2023 when scores of NATO-led peacekeepers were injured. In a positive step, ethnic Serb mayors this month took power peacefully there after a municipal vote.
Kurti has also agreed to accept third-country migrants deported from the United States as part of tough anti-immigration measures by the administration of President Donald Trump. One migrant has arrived so far, authorities have told The Associated Press.
Kosovo is one of the six Western Balkan countries striving to eventually join the EU, but both Kosovo and Serbia have been told they must first normalize relations.
