The president of the United States, Donald Trump, has raised the tone against Spain at the end of the NATO summit held in The Hague, where he has launched a direct threat of commercial reprisals for the rejection of the Government of Pedro Sánchez to join the new military spending commitment of 5% of GDP.
Until now, Trump had avoided expressly mentioning Spain since his arrival in the Netherlands. But at the press conference after the meeting with the leaders of the Atlantic Alliance, he broke his silence with a retaliation and a threat: “They are the only country that will not pay. They will stay in 2%. That economy is doing very well, They are the only country that will not pay. I don’t understand what the problem is. ”
Next, the US president announced his intention to press Spain for other ways: “Do you know what we are going to do? We will negotiate a commercial agreement with Spain. Let’s make them pay twice. I like Spain, I know many people from Spain, it is a great place with great people. But it is the only country of all others that refuses to pay. ”
“They go a little for free, but I will get them to pay, because it is unfair,” he said. “I’m going to negotiate directly with Spain. I’m going to do it.”
Sanchez defends his position: “Realistic and compatible commitment to well -being”
Before Trump’s statements, the president of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, had referred to the summit to reaffirm the Spanish commitment to NATO, but made clear his refusal to accept the new bar of 5% promoted by Trump and backed by the secretary general of the organization, Mark Rutte.
“I have not had the opportunity to greet him, or to be able to exchange a few words with him,” Sánchez acknowledged in reference to Trump.
Despite the distancing, the Spanish president defended the position of his executive: “All Member States know about the guarantee, of trust, of predictability, of the commitment that Spain has with NATO. And that is not vacuous words: there are the budgets. We have committed ourselves to reach 2%, being an administration that did not acquire or assumed that commitment in 2014”.
Sanchez justified that percentage as “sufficient, realistic and compatible with our social model, with our welfare state.” In addition, he recalled that Spain currently maintains about 3,000 troops on the eastern flank of the Alliance, an operational commitment that, in its opinion, reinforces the Spanish contribution to European security.
