The Government of Spain has been able to weather the anger of Donald Trump for Pedro Sánchez’s rejection of raise military and security spending to 5% of GDP. Beyond the criticism of the president of the United States, there has been no measure of retaliation. Now, that irritating diplomat will be more difficult to avoid: next week the new United States ambassador, Benjamín León, will arrive in Madrid and intends to press the issue.
Its fundamental mission will be for Moncloa to “reverse” its refusal to raise defense spending to the numbers agreed upon by the rest of the allies. In addition, it will push in favor of arms General Dynamics and its subsidiary in Spain, Santa Bárbara, in the dispute over a 7.24 billion euro contract to manufacture a new mobile artillery system that was awarded to a Temporary Business Union led by the Spanish Indra.
Santa Bárbara has denounced that statement before the Supreme Court, and the new ambassador will take this dispute to the meetings with the Spanish counterpart, as Europa Press has advanced.
León was sworn in this Tuesday in Washington before the Secretary of State of the United States, Marco Rubio, after the unanimous approval of the Senate, thus ending a ratification process which has lasted almost a year.
The United States has been without an ambassador in Madrid since the early departure of the previous ambassador, Julissa Reynoso. She left her position in June 2024 to help on Joe Biden’s election campaign and then return to her previous work as a lawyer.
Spain “has always been a great partner of the United States” and a “great host” of the American army, says Benjamín León, new ambassador
Benjamín León is a 82-year-old billionaire businessman friend of Trump. He is Cuban-American. He arrived in the United States when he was 16 years old and had “five dollars in his pocket,” according to the president, and managed to build an empire of health companies called Leon Medical Centers.
Meeting with Albares of the United States ambassador
León is expected to arrive in Madrid this Sunday. On February 17 he will meet with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares. It is foreseeable that in this same meeting talk about the situation in Cubain the midst of a humanitarian crisis aggravated by the United States blockade of Venezuelan and Mexican oil shipments.
“Foreign Affairs is preparing to receive the new United States ambassador with whom it will work, as with all ambassadors accredited in Spain, tocontinue deepening the bilateral relationship between both countries for the mutual benefit of our people,” they assure Foreign sources to EL PERIÓDICO.
The Spanish Embassy in the United States has conveyed its “most sincere” congratulations to León on his investiture: “We wish him much success in this important position and we hope to welcome him soon in Madrid.”
León will present credentials before King Felipe VI on February 18as advanced by the aforementioned agency and confirmed by EL PERIÓDICO.
Convince Sánchez to invest more in Defense
In his confirmation appearance before the Senate, Benjamin Leon He said that he will work to “strengthen” military cooperation between Spain and the United States and that he will pressure Spain to increase its defense spending toward the goal of 5% of GDP agreed at the NATO summit in The Hague. He will try to “reverse” what he described as a mistake in this matter by the socialist president.
Sánchez and his Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, assure that with an expenditure of 2.1% is enough to comply with the military capabilities required by the Atlantic Alliance. Moncloa also defends that 5% spending would mean assuming serious social cuts and undermining the cohesion that makes Spain stable.
León assured during his confirmation that he considers that Spain “has always been a great partner of the United States” and a “great host” of the United States military for more than 70 years. In 1952, both governments signed the Madrid Pacts that allow the use of the military bases of Rota and Morón to the US Armed Forces.
Choque General Dynamics – Indra
In terms of economic diplomacy, León will first meet with the main American companies with interests in Madrid.
Specifically, it will try to mediate in the open battle between General Dynamics and Indra over the million-dollar military artillery contracts awarded by the Government to the latter.
Santa Bárbara Sistemas (which belongs to General Dynamics European Land Systems, European subsidiary of General Dynamics) tried without success to obtain a contract 7,240 million euros to develop a mobile artillery tank. The Americans filed a contentious-administrative appeal that was admitted by the Supreme Court. They requested the precautionary suspension of the delivery of 3,000 million euros in 0% loans to the temporary joint venture (UTE) of Indra and Escribano Mechanical & Engineering (EM&E).
These credits are intended to pre-finance the wheel and track artillery programs included in the military modernization projects promoted by the Government, to which General Dynamics aspired, which was not even invited to participate in the tender, Europa Press reports.
The American company argues that the process of awarding the Special Modernization Programs (PEM) of the Government has been carried out “without any publicity or attendance. Furthermore, they believe that “Indra does not have the capacity to develop howitzers,” in the words of Alejandro Page, general director of Santa Bárbara. The Government controls 28% of Indra through SEPI, and one of the political objectives of Spain and the rest of the EU is to reinforce the strategic autonomy of European defense, making it less dependent on American weapons.
Through several royal decrees, the Executive has granted a total of 14,224 million euros in interest-free loans to different companies to pre-finance the development of military modernization programs, some of which have been awarded to Santa Bárbara itself.
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