Washington maintains pressure on Spain. The ambassador of Donald Trump before NATO, Matthew Whitaker, insisted again this Tuesday that Pedro Sanchez It must fulfill the commitment to raise defense spending to 5% of GDP, agreed at the Hague summit, to respond to the threats facing the Atlantic Alliance.
Whitaker doubts that Spain will be able to finance the military capabilities promised to NATO with the current investment level of 2%, as maintained by the Sánchez Government.
“Evidently, they signed the Defense commitment of The Hague and we believe that the capabilities to which they have committed require 3.5% in real and hard spending on Defense, plus another 1.5% on resilience and infrastructure. Spain disagrees and maintains that it can do it for less,” explained the US ambassador at a press conference.
“The message to Spain has been very clear: our expectation is capacity objectives. If they can do it cheaper, fantastic. We don’t think it’s possible, but if they do it, teach us all how to do itbecause we think we’re pretty clear on what artillery, tanks and soldiers cost,” Whitaker says.
In any case, Trump’s ambassador to NATO has indicated that “in the short term, I sincerely believe that Spain is making great progress“after the sharp increase in military spending in 2025 to reach 2%.
“I consider Spain a committed ally and we are having these conversations continuously and regularly, both with the international staff (of NATO) and, of course, with me and my team here,” highlights Whitaker, who this Tuesday met with the Spanish ambassador to the Alliance, Federico Torres Muro.
Despite repeated criticism from prominent members of the Trump administration and the US president himself, Sánchez’s Government remains firm in his intention to limit Defense spending to 2% of GDP, a figure that was reached for the first time in 2025. Sánchez alleges that going further would force cuts to the welfare state.
The Spanish Executive defends, however, its absolute commitment to NATO and emphasizes that it regularly meets its demands, both in the reinforcement of the Eastern flank and in military aid to Ukraine through the PURL program, which makes it easier for European allies to purchase American weapons for shipment to kyiv.
The Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, has also said that Spain is open to participating in the new mission Arctic Sentinel that is preparing to launch the Atlantic Alliance to cool Trump’s plans to take over Greenland.
The increase in military spending is one of the main points on the agenda of the meeting of NATO defense ministers taking place this Thursday in Brussels, which Robles herself is scheduled to attend.
Whitaker has given Germany and the Baltic countries (Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia) as examples to follow and has complained that the countries furthest from the war front in Ukraine continue to drag their feet.
“There are still some allies that have to step forward, especially those that are geographically further away from NATO’s eastern flank. They are not moving as fast as they should and ultimately we hope they will do more“claimed Trump’s ambassador.