Spain rejects NATO’s anticipated 5% defense spending proposal as ‘unreasonable’

FILE - Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez speaks during a press conference at the Spanish Embassy in Beijing, April 11, 2025. Photo by Ng Han Guan /AP

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MADRID (AP) — Spain has rejected a NATO proposal to spend 5% of gross domestic product on defense needs that’s due to be announced next week, calling it “unreasonable.”

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Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, 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.

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Most U.S. allies in NATO are on track to endorse U.S. President Donald Trump’s demand that they invest 5% of GDP on their defense and military needs. In early June, Sweden and the Netherlands said that they aim to meet the new target.

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A NATO official on Thursday said that discussions between allies were ongoing about a new defense spending plan.

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“For Spain, committing to a 5% 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,” Sanchez wrote in the letter seen by The Associated Press.

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Spain was the lowest spender in the 32-nation military alliance last year, directing less than 2% of its GDP on defense expenditure.

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Sanchez 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% of GDP.

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On Thursday, Sanchez 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.

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Sanchez wrote that the country is “fully committed to NATO,” but that meeting a 5% 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.

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Instead, Spain will need to spend 2.1% of GDP to meet the Spanish military’s estimated defense needs, Sanchez said.

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NATO allies agreed to spend 2% 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%.

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The aim now is to raise the bar to 3.5% for core defense spending on tanks, warplanes, air defense, missiles and hiring extra troops. A further 1.5% 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.

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Rutte had been due to table a new proposal on Friday aimed at satisfying Spain. European allies and Canada are keen to finalize the spending pledge before the summit, and not leave it open for any heated debate that might drag the meeting out.