In order to bring Madrid on board, the new language that leaders will approve on Wednesday was changed from “we commit” to “allies commit” to spend 5 percent on defense, a NATO official said. That would allow Spain spending flexibility as long as it meets NATO’s updated capability targets approved by alliance defense ministers on June 5.
In a statement on Sunday, Sánchez described the outcome as a “success,” which will allow Spain to “fulfill its commitments to the Atlantic alliance and preserve its unity, without having to increase defense spending to 5 percent of GDP.”
“Each NATO member … has the right and the obligation to choose whether or not to assume those sacrifices, and we as a sovereign country choose not to do so,” Sánchez said.
He added that Spain will spend 2.1 percent of its GDP on defense “to acquire and maintain all the personnel, equipment and infrastructures requested by the alliance to confront these threats with our capabilities.”
That view was confirmed by NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte in a note to Sánchez: “I can hereby confirm that the agreement at the upcoming NATO Summit will give Spain the flexibility to determine its own sovereign path for reaching the Capability Target goal and the annual resources necessary as a share of GDP, and to submit its own annual plans.”
He added that the alliance will review its spending trajectory in 2029.
