Spain says it has not committed to meeting NATO's new 5% target

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez on Sunday said his country has not committed to increasing annual defence-related spending to at least 5% of gross domestic product, after news emerged that NATO allies had reached agreement on a planned spending target.

Sánchez, during an address broadcast on television, said raising defence expenditure to such a level "would be incompatible with our welfare state and our world view."

Spain only recently raised its defence expenditure to 2% of GDP, the premier noted, one of the last NATO allies to meet the 32-member alliance's current spending target.

This level of expenditure was "perfectly compatible" with the capacities demanded by NATO and at the same time with maintaining the welfare state, said Sánchez, of the Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE).

Spain had managed to change the consensus within NATO, with the desire of a majority of allies to commit to defence-related spending of 5% of GDP now reconciled with the right of other nations not do so, the Spanish leader said.

His comments come after diplomats told dpa that NATO allies had reached agreement on raising defence-related spending to at least 5% of GDP by 2035, a plan to be rubber-stamped at a leaders summit in The Hague next week.

According to the diplomats, NATO allies opposing the move, including Spain, were brought on board because the agreement includes plans for a review of the new target in 2029.

As sovereign countries, all NATO members have the right and the duty to decide for themselves what sacrifices they want to make, Sánchez said. "And we, as a sovereign country, have decided against it."