Madrid has been the only \u201claggard\u201d in the bloc\u2019s push to increase military spending, the US president has said<\/p>\n
Spain should be thrown out of NATO for failing to meet the new 5% defense spending target, US President Donald Trump has said. Trump, who spearheaded the increase, claimed he secured the commitment during the NATO summit in June.
\nTrump addressed the issue during a meeting with Finnish President Alexander Stubb in the Oval Office on Thursday. He boasted about making NATO members commit to the new spending target \u201cvirtually unanimously.\u201d
\n\u201cWe had one laggard. It was Spain,\u201d\u00a0he said, adding that \u201cthey have no excuse not to do this.\u201d
\n\u201cMaybe you should throw them out of NATO, frankly,\u201d Trump stated.
\nThe US president repeatedly accused NATO member of failing to shoulder the military spending burden equitably even during his first term. Since taking office again in January, he has intensified demands that the bloc\u2019s European members spend more on defense.
\nHis push culminated at the June summit in The Hague, where NATO members committed to increasing defense spending to 5% of their GDP annually by 2035. Trump called the meeting \u201cthe most unified and productive in history.\u201d<\/p>\n
Read more<\/p>\n
NATO\u2019s 5% spending demand \u2018absolutely impossible\u2019 \u2013 bloc member<\/p>\n
Not all NATO members were happy about the development. Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said after the meeting that his nation is capable of meeting NATO demands even without a substantial spending increase, pointing to his government\u2019s \u201cother priorities.\u201d
\nSpain has emerged as the strongest opponent of the spending increase. Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said he had secured an exemption for Madrid ahead of the summit, while the country proposed a more modest defense spending target of 2.1% of GDP. Last year, Spain allocated the smallest share of GDP to defense among NATO members, at around 1.3%.
\nAfter the June summit, Spanish Defense Minister Margarita Robles dismissed the 5% spending target as \u201cabsolutely impossible.\u201d
\n\u201cNo industry can take it on,\u201d she said at the time, arguing that European defense companies lack both the skilled labor and the raw materials needed to expand production, even if governments provide the necessary funding.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Madrid has been the only \u201claggard\u201d in the bloc\u2019s push to increase military spending, the US president has said Spain should be thrown out of NATO for failing to meet…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20041,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-environment","category-politics"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t