Spain says ‘committed to NATO’ after Trump expulsion threat

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday that the NATO alliance should consider throwing Spain out of its membership ranks. (Reuters)

MADRID: Spain hit back at Donald Trump on Friday after the US President suggested expelling the country from NATO for failing to meet his ramped-up defense spending target.
In June, the 32-nation military alliance agreed to massively boost defense spending to five percent of annual economic output over the next decade under pressure from Trump.
But Spain, which was NATO’s lowest defense spender in relative terms last year, insisted it would not need to hit the headline figure.
“We had one laggard, it was Spain,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Thursday.
“They have no excuse not to do this, but that’s all right. Maybe you should throw them out of NATO, frankly.”
Government sources said on Friday that “Spain is a committed and full member of NATO. And it meets its capacity targets as much as the United States.”
Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has argued that Spain should meet its capacity objectives rather than fixed spending targets, including cybersecurity and the environment in his calculations.
The Spanish opposition pounced on the stir caused by Trump’s remarks to criticize Sanchez late on Thursday.
The main conservative opposition’s leader, Alberto Nunez Feijoo, wrote on X that “Spain is a credible, proud member and committed to NATO. And we will remain so. The problem is Sanchez.”
“He can’t be trusted, but that should not hold the country back. Our nation should not have to pay for his frivolity and irresponsibility,” the Popular Party leader said.
Far-right leader Santiago Abascal, who heads Spain’s third-largest political force Vox, said on X that Sanchez “further destroys national interests and seriously harms our security.”
“Sanchez is the greatest calamity Spain has had in a long time.”