Donald Trump Wants to “Expel” Spain from NATO!
U.S. President Donald Trump sparked fresh controversy on Thursday after calling Spain a “laggard” in reference to NATO’s agreement requiring member states to allocate 5% of their GDP to defense spending. Trump went as far as suggesting that Spain should be “excluded” from the Atlantic Alliance.
In fact, Spain’s left-wing government currently devotes around 2% of its GDP to defense and has no intention of raising that figure to 5%, as stipulated by NATO’s new target set during the Alliance’s latest summit in The Hague last June.
Spain refuses the 5% threshold
Although Spain signed the summit’s final declaration, it firmly stated that it does not consider itself bound by the 5% target. According to Madrid, each NATO member is expected to strengthen its military capacities in line with defense plans established by the Alliance. Spain insists it can meet those goals while keeping its defense spending capped at 2% of GDP. Currently, the three NATO members devoting the highest percentage of their GDP to defense are countries bordering or close to Russia, which has been at war with Ukraine for three years: Poland (4.48%), Lithuania (4%), and Latvia (3.73%), according to NATO data.
Editorial team/le7tv
