Spain Pushes Back Against NATO’s 5 Percent Defense Spending Target

Thursday 19 June 2025 - 16:36

By: Zahouani Ilham

Spain Pushes Back Against NATO’s 5 Percent Defense Spending Target

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has strongly rejected NATO’s proposed plan to require member states to allocate 5% of their GDP to defense spending by 2032. In a letter addressed to NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, Sánchez argued that such a target is not only “unreasonable” but could be “counterproductive” for Spain.

The upcoming NATO summit is expected to formalize this new goal, splitting the spending between 3.5% on direct military expenditure and 1.5% on defense-related investments. Sánchez warned that reaching such a level would be impossible without increasing taxes on the middle class, cutting public services and social benefits, and scaling back commitments to environmental and international development policies.

In a firm stance, Sánchez emphasized that “every government has the sovereign right to decide whether to make such sacrifices,” and Spain chooses not to. Instead, he proposed a more balanced approach, setting Spain’s military spending goal at 2.1% of GDP slightly above the current year’s target aimed at modernizing the armed forces while addressing other critical social, economic, and environmental challenges.

Sánchez further argued that NATO itself would benefit from Spain maintaining a more moderate level of defense spending. He cautioned that a rapid increase to 5% could disrupt ongoing efforts within the EU to strengthen its security ecosystem and would undermine initiatives aimed at improving interoperability, procurement systems, and industrial capacity.

According to Sánchez, this sharp spending hike would lead to two major problems: it would likely force Spain to purchase military equipment from outside Europe, worsening interoperability issues and diverting funds to non-European suppliers; and it would negatively impact economic growth due to rising debt, inflation, and reduced investments in vital sectors like education, healthcare, and digital technology.