With 1.28% of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) dedicated to defense, Spain is the country that, proportionally, allocates the least resources to military spending of the 32 NATO allies. According to data collected by the Atlantic Alliance and released this Monday, Spain falls from third to last position to last on the list, behind Slovenia, Luxembourg and Belgium. It is far, therefore, from the 2% of GDP agreed by the allies in 2014 and which, currently, already reaches 23 NATO countries, in a scenario of unprecedented increase in defense spending and purchases of military equipment, since Russia launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Last year, there were a dozen Alliance countries that spent at least 2% of GDP on defense, while in 2014, when that commitment was signed at a meeting in Wales, against the backdrop of the invasion and illegal annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea by the Kremlin and the war in Donbas (eastern Ukraine), there were only three of the members of NATO.
“Across Europe and Canada, NATO allies are increasing defense spending by 18% this year,” explained Alliance Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on Monday in Washington during a meeting with US President Joe Biden. “This is the largest increase in decades,” he noted. “This is more than double what it was four years ago and shows that European allies and Canada are really stepping up and taking their share of the common responsibility to protect us all,” he added.
The allies that spend the most are Poland (4.12%), Estonia (3.43%) and the United States (3.38%). Spain plans to reach 2% of GDP in military spending in 2029, and seeks to take greater account in the Alliance of investment in capabilities – where it is above average – and the contribution to NATO missions, explain allied sources. However, the debate among allies is now on a further increase in spending.
Already at the Vilnius (Lithuania) summit a year ago, the heads of State and Government of the countries of the military organization agreed that this 2% of GDP is only the minimum and not the ceiling. They will talk about this again in July, in a very symbolic meeting in Washington, in which the 75 years of the Atlantic Alliance will be commemorated, with their eyes already set on the possibility of former Republican President Donald Trump returning to the White House after the presidential elections in November.
In recent months, Trump has questioned the Alliance’s security commitment and has gone so far as to assure that the United States would not come to the defense of those allies that do not comply with Wales’ 2% commitment; although in his rhetoric he incorrectly stated that this payment and commitment is made to Washington and he went so far as to call those who do not reach the figure “defaulters.”
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Stoltenberg, in his meeting with Biden, prior to the decisive summit to be held in three weeks, tried to reassure the American president and insist on one of the greatest challenges: support for Ukraine at a time when it may falter and in which that it has become more difficult to obtain new funds. “It is important for the United States to know that much of this money is actually spent here in the United States,” the secretary general said. “Allies are buying more and more equipment from the United States. So NATO is good for their security, but it is also good for American jobs,” he noted.
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