. The president of the United States, , once again raised the finger at our country yesterday, in the middle of the Davos Forum. It disgraced Madrid, again, that it did not dedicate the . “I have obtained a commitment from practically all NATO allies to increase defense spending to 5% of GDP. All except Spain. I don’t know what is happening with Spain. Why don’t they do it? They want to take advantage. Everyone increases it to 5% except Spain. I don’t know why, we will have to talk to Spain,” he warned.
This morning, from Brussels, the Spanish president, , has rejected these criticisms and has assured that he would be “delighted” to explain face to face his arguments so that he does not take advantage of it any further.
The head of the Executive, in a press conference after the one held in the community capital precisely in the face of Trump’s expansionist threats in , stressed that Spain has tripled its investment in defense since he was at the head of the Government and allocates 34,000 million euros a year from the taxes of all Spaniards to this area, a figure that he said is more than that of thirteen countries of the Atlantic Alliance combined.
“There are the figures,” stressed Sánchez, who guaranteed the total loyalty and clarity of the Government of Spain to point out that the same that strengthens its defense and contributes to collective defense, will not give up strengthening public health, education, dependency aid, development aid or cooperation with third countries.
All of this, he said, also means security, and that this is not only guaranteed by manufacturing or buying weapons. It has always been their argument: it is not only weapons and materials that defend us.
When asked if he would be willing to explain these arguments directly to the president of the United States, he said: “When have I ever had a problem? On the contrary, I am always delighted.”
“When have I ever had a problem? On the contrary, always delighted”
How are things
Spain is already allocating 2% of its gross domestic product to military spending during 2025, according to the report on this matter, published last August.
Our country, along with Portugal, Germany, Belgium, North Macedonia, the Czech Republic and Luxembourg, is still among the countries that allocate the least proportion of their GDP to this area, but the data known last summer means that it meets for the first time the spending objective that the members of the organization agreed in 2014 for the following decade. Then, Spain dedicated 0.92% of GDP to military spending.
Upon his return to the White House, Trump began to pressure and threaten his allies to increase their military spending to 5% of GDP, which he achieved at the Hague Alliance summit, the last one. Before this, the Spanish Government’s roadmap provided for military spending of 1.32% in 2025 to reach the 2% committed in 2029.
But in Washington they must be happy with Madrid for other reasons: Spain has bought more American weapons in the last two years than in almost a century, he revealed. . Between 2023 and 2024, the Spanish Government ordered military material worth more than 4.5 billion euros from the United States, a quarter of everything acquired since 1950.
The contracts include Patriot systems, MH-60R helicopters and auxiliary equipment, which represent the largest volume of expenditure with a single supplier in the recent history of Spanish defense. According to the DSCA (), sales to Spain reached 2,907 million dollars in 2024 and 1,682 million the previous year.
So while Washington was publicly denouncing the lack of commitment, Madrid was carrying out one of the largest purchasing operations in its history, funneling billions into the US military industry.
