{"id":4538,"date":"2025-06-30T10:06:08","date_gmt":"2025-06-30T10:06:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.developeternal.com\/?p=4538"},"modified":"2025-06-30T10:26:58","modified_gmt":"2025-06-30T10:26:58","slug":"natos-5-spending-demand-absolutely-impossible-bloc-member","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.developeternal.com\/index.php\/2025\/06\/30\/natos-5-spending-demand-absolutely-impossible-bloc-member\/","title":{"rendered":"NATO\u2019s 5% spending demand \u2018absolutely impossible\u2019 \u2013 bloc member"},"content":{"rendered":"

European arms manufacturers wouldn\u2019t be able to absorb such a hike, the Spanish defense minister has said<\/strong><\/p>\n

NATO member Spain has roundly rejected demands by US President Donald Trump and military bloc chief Mark Rutte to increase its spending on militarisation to 5% of the country\u2019s GDP.<\/p>\n

European members of the NATO are not capable of meeting the US demand, Spanish Defense Minister Margarita Robles insisted to Spanish lawmakers on Friday, dismissing the 5% target declared by Rutte at last week\u2019s bloc summit as \u201cabsolutely impossible\u201d<\/em> to achieve.<\/p>\n

\u201dEveryone is absolutely convinced that right now there is no industry capable of absorbing 5%,\u201d<\/em> she told the country\u2019s Senate Defense Commission. \u201cWe can say whatever we want, we can dress it up or disguise it, but no industry can take it on.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Madrid pushed back against the target ahead of the summit<\/a> in the Netherlands, proposing a more modest 2.1% spending level. Last year, Spain stood out as the NATO member dedicating the least percentage of its GDP (1.28%) to the military, compared to 4.12% in the case of Poland. Robles, however, claimed the comparison is misleading.<\/p>\n

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\n \u00a9\u00a0 NATO <\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

According to Robles, European defense companies lack both the skilled workforce and access to raw materials needed to scale up production \u2013 even if governments managed to provide the necessary funding. Other NATO members privately acknowledge the same concerns and are stalling for time, she claimed.<\/p>\n

Spain is \u201ca serious, reliable, committed, and responsible ally, who speaks less and does more,\u201d<\/em> Robles told an event at Madrid\u2019s Higher Center for Defense Studies. The national defense industry \u201cdoes not need lessons from anyone,\u201d<\/em> she declared, suggesting Trump \u201cshould have used his influence to end the war in Ukraine\u201d<\/em> instead of pressuring Spain to boost military spending.<\/p>\n

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\n READ MORE: <\/span>The latest NATO summit was the priciest humiliation fetish ever produced
\n <\/a>\n <\/p>\n

Trump claimed during his presidential campaign last year that he could end the conflict between Russia and Ukraine \u201cin 24 hours.\u201d<\/em> Since taking office, however, he has acknowledged the situation is more complicated than he initially believed.<\/p>\n

Moscow views NATO\u2019s intention to grant membership to Ukraine as an existential threat and characterizes the ongoing conflict as a proxy war waged by the bloc \u201cto the last Ukrainian.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

European arms manufacturers wouldn\u2019t be able to absorb such a hike, the Spanish defense minister has said NATO member Spain has roundly rejected demands by US President Donald Trump and military bloc chief Mark Rutte to increase its spending on militarisation to 5% of the country\u2019s GDP. European members of the NATO are not capable…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4540,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.developeternal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.developeternal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.developeternal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.developeternal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.developeternal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4538"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.developeternal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4538\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4542,"href":"http:\/\/www.developeternal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4538\/revisions\/4542"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.developeternal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.developeternal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.developeternal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.developeternal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}