The U.S. administration calls on Spain to increase military spending in its first official contact with the country since Trump took office.
Since taking being sworn in on January 20th, US President Donald Trump hasn’t had any direct diplomatic contact with Spain.
Up until now there have been no messages or calls either between the new administration and the Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez or the US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares.
The only comment Trump made regarding Spain was on the day of his inauguration when reporter asked the US President what they can expect NATO countries that spend the least amount of money, like Spain and he responded that Spain’s contribution “is very low”.
READ ALSO: Is Spain’s Nato defence spend really as low as Trump claims?
Trump also then wrongly called Spain was a BRICS nation, which is a group of emerging nations led by Russia and China.
But on Friday March 29th, Under Secretary of State Christopher Landau, Rubio’s second-in-command, “spoke with Spain’s Secretary of State for Foreign and Global Affairs, Diego Martínez Belío, reaffirmed the strength of the U.S.-Spain alliance and urged Spain to increase its defence spending in line with its NATO commitments,” read the brief message released by his office after the phone call.
“The Under Secretary and the Secretary of State discussed deepening our ties across a wide range of mutual interests, including strengthening cooperation on migration.” The Foreign Ministry described the conversation as “cordial,” according to Efe, Spanish international news agency.
But the main point that the Trump administration wanted to discuss and prioritise is the amount Spain spends on defence.
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Spain currently spends 1.28 percent of GDP spent on defence, according to recent data, which is lower than any other NATO country.
But, recently, NATO Secretary General Marc Rutte explained that Spain had shown its intention to reach the two percent minimum, to which all the alliance members committed to in 2014.
Even though Spain spends the least, it invests much more in capabilities and missions than many of those countries that exceed the two percent threshold.
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez defended Spain’s efforts a couple of months ago by saying: “In the last 10 years, we have increased by 70 percent our total defence expenditure. If we take those figures in absolute terms, what we can say is that Spain is the 10th top contributor to Nato”.
Spain has agreed to revise its commitment and reach the promised two-percent of GDP target by 2029, but that plans to do so by this summer are unrealistic.
In the next five years, Spain’s defence budget will go from €17.5 billion to €36.56 billion, which is more than double.
