5% defense spending plan

Trump hints at Spain's cooperation with NATO's 5% defense spending plan

By Maureen Chowdhury

US President Donald Trump said that a majority of NATO member countries have agreed to boosting defense spending to 5% of their GDP.

The president suggested Spain could also be on board, after Trump repeatedly criticized European allies over defense spending and singled out Spain earlier.

During his NATO news conference, Trump said that “most countries have agreed to it.”

“We have a couple of a couple of that didn’t. But I have a feeling they’re going to and pretty quickly; in fact, today they were very positive. One of them in particular was, I didn’t think a good team player, today was a great team player,” he said.

Some background: Spain is the only member of NATO that had refused to commit to the increased spending targets, securing an exemption to cap its military spending at 2.1% of its gross domestic product, instead of the higher 5% target that other nations plan to reach by 2035. Among NATO allies, Spain is tied for last in terms of defense spending as a percentage of the country’s GDP.

Asked about the lack of support from Spain, the United Kingdom and Italy during the war with Iran, Trump said:

“Well, I’ll tell you what, number one, Spain has been very bad. But, you know, Italy has been good and almost all of the countries have been good. They just had a bad moment.”