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US President Donald Trump has dropped a rather heavy hint about the possibility of "expelling" Spain from NATO because Pedro Sánchez's government won't agree to the new 5% of GDP defence spending target that the Republican has set.

 

Trump made these comments during a joint appearance at the White House with Finland's President, Alexander Stubb.

 

"I asked them to pay 5%, not 2%, and the majority thought it wouldn't happen, and it was approved almost unanimously. We had one country that was behind: Spain. (…) Frankly, maybe they should expel them from NATO," he declared.

 

"They have no excuse not to do so," he insisted.

 

"You should call them (Spain) and find out why they're lagging. And they're doing well, too, because of a lot of the things we've done," Trump said from the Oval Office.

 

The president pointed out that he'd asked alliance members to bump up their defence budget to 5% of GDP, with 3.5% going towards traditional military spending and 1.5% for security infrastructure like cybersecurity and critical infrastructure protection, but Spain hadn't played ball.

 

"I think you're going to have to start talking to Spain," he told Stubb.

 

This isn't the first time Trump has voiced his frustration with Spain. At this year's NATO summit, he'd already made his discontent pretty clear over Sánchez's reluctance. Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, the Republican called Spain "a problem."

 

During the summit itself, he kept insisting that "Spain hasn't complied, but it will," and accused the country of being "the only one that, in some way, tried to avoid putting up the money."

 

Throughout the meeting, Trump kept hammering home his criticisms and even threatened trade sanctions if the Spanish government kept digging its heels in over military spending.

 

Spain was the only country at the summit, at least publicly, to push back against the idea of raising defence spending to the 5% threshold. According to the Spanish president, reaching 2.1% of GDP on defence is a sufficient target and lines up with Spain's current capabilities. For the Alliance, though, that's not cutting it, and certainly not now, at a time when, according to NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, "we are living in times of extraordinary uncertainty."

 

The sense of bewilderment regarding Spain's reluctance is widely shared, especially amongst representatives of the Baltic and Nordic countries. Just a week ago, former NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen told pointed out that "Spain is not protected" and must fulfil "its obligations as a NATO member."

 

"All members must comply," he reiterated.

 

While acknowledging the government's budgetary problems, he insisted that the Russian threat also affects Spain.

 

"Cyberattacks can hit Spain as much as they can Germany, Romania or Poland. Spain is not protected. Cybersecurity is also an urgent matter for this country," he concluded.

 

While it has committed to spending a smaller percentage of its GDP on defence than other NATO partners, Spain is one of the few countries in the world that continues to invest heavily in international humanitarian aid to poorer nations, allocating 0.7% of its GDP by 2030, making it something of an outlier on the global stage.

 

 

Image: Archive