Donald Trump: 'Maybe we should expel Spain from Nato'

US President Donald Trump has suggested expelling Spain from Nato over disagreements on increased defence spending, after Pedro Sánchez's government refused to reach 5% of GDP. In August this year, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization announced that Spain would reach 2% of spending this year, which was the amount agreed in a 2014 deal.

Trump, it seems, does not let Spain off the hook so easily. "I requested that they pay 5%, not 2%, and most people thought that it was not gonna happen. And it happened virtually unanimously. We had one laggard: it was Spain," Trump said on Thursday during a meeting with Finland President Alexander Stubb.

He proceeded to say that the Spanish "have no excuse" not to increase defence spending and he attributed Spain's progress and economic well-being to "a lot of things" the US has done. For this reason, Trump believes that Spain should be kept accountable and explain why the government is "being a laggard". In the end, the US President said: "Maybe we should expel them from Nato."

However, shortly afterwards, Spanish government sources expressed their "calm" and defended the country's position. "Spain is a committed member of Nato. It fulfils its capability objectives as well as the US," the Moncloa told Europa Press.

However, the leader of the conservative party (PP) Alberto Núñez Feijóo reproached Pedro Sánchez for "not being a reliable leader". He then added that Spain "is a credible, proud and committed partner" that "does not have to pay" for the "frivolity and irresponsibility" of its prime minister.

During the alliance summit in the Hague in June, Sánchez had already expressed Spain's position and reluctance to raise defence spending from 2% to 5% of GDP, as Trump had demanded that all Nato members do. The socialist (PSOE) government's position almost caused the summit to fail. In the end, it was agreed that the allies would eventually reach 5%, although they were given some flexibility in the timeframe to reach this goal.

In August, Nato announced that Spain's objective will be to reach 2% in 2025 - a target set by the alliance at the 2014 summit for the following decade. Thanks to an investment of 10.5 billion euros, announced in April, Spain will reach the 2% target for the first time this year.

Record investment

The document gathered data from the defence ministries of each allied country on current and projected spending, based on the payments made or to be made by the governments during the fiscal year to meet the needs of their armies or of Nato.

According to these estimates, Spain would reach 2% of GDP in military spending well before 2029, which was the date initially planned by the government. Sánchez has already confirmed that he would bring this date forward in order to fulfil the Nato commitment earlier - something that will be possible after the historic extra investment of 10.5 billion euros.

Minister of defence Margarita Robles confirmed Spain's commitment to fulfilling defence needs. She recalled the contribution of human resources to Nato missions (3,000 soldiers on the eastern flank to dissuade Russia) and the investments made in the security sector to combat phenomena such as forest fires.