SPAIN TO MEET DEFENSE SPENDING TARGET OF 2% BEFORE 2029 – Says Defence Minister Margarita Robles
Defence Minister Margarita Robles stated today that Spain will increase its defense spending to 2% of gross domestic products “well before” the original target date of 2029, she said; however no new deadline was specified.
Spain has the lowest defense spending as a share of its economy, of just 1.3%, among NATO members. Getting to 2% would require roughly an additional 10 billion euros a year.
Last week, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said in a speech in Warsaw that Spain was now expecting to meet the bloc’s 2% target by the summer, leading the Spanish government to speak to Rutte to explain that it would do its best to get closer to the target by that time, according to a government source.
“It’s not so much a problem of deadlines, but I believe that well in advance, before 2029, we will meet our obligations … we are working on it in a serious and rigourous manner,” Robles said on the sidelines of an event in Lisbon.
Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has assured the alliance Spain will play its part in Europe’s efforts to bolster its defenses, but he has also argued that countries that are further apart from Russia geographically should focus their spending on countering cyber attacks rather than stockpiling weapons.
Rutte criticized what he called “a sort of two-tier NATO,” with countries on the eastern flank that are more exposed to a potential attack from Russia spending a lot more on defense than others, arguing that “the difference between a missile attack on Warsaw or on Madrid is 10 minutes.”
