Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, whose country is at the bottom of Nato’s military budget rankings, has called for a broader definition of defence spending to include cyber security, anti-terrorism and efforts to combat climate change.
In his most significant remarks on defence since US President Donald Trump returned to power, Sánchez reiterated that Spain would reach Nato’s 2 per cent of GDP spending target at some point before 2029, but argued that threats other than a Russian invasion had to be considered.
“For any eastern European or Nordic or Baltic country, the threat demands a response in which deterrence relies primarily on defence investment,” Sánchez told reporters on Thursday.
“But in Spain that is not the case. Our threat is not Russia bringing its troops across the Pyrenees,” he said. “When we talk about Russia it’s more a hybrid threat. It’s the threat of cyber attacks. So what we have to do is not just talk about defence, but fundamentally talk about security.”
Spain spends less than any other Nato member on defence as a percentage of GDP, reaching an estimated 1.28 per cent in 2024.
It is in the spotlight along with other laggards including Italy as Trump has called on Europe to pay more for its own security and floated 5 per cent as Nato’s new spending target.
Sánchez has avoided any big spending pledges because he faces resistance from his hard-left coalition partner and other lawmakers whose votes he needs to reach a parliamentary majority. He is also constrained by a pacifist streak in Spanish society rooted in the experience of its 20th century military dictatorship.
Sánchez is already struggling to garner enough votes to pass a 2025 budget. At the same time economic growth in Spain, which last year expanded faster than any other major advanced economy, means the euro value of the 2 per cent target is rising.
After a day spent talking to the leaders of Spain’s political parties, Sánchez called for a “360 degree” vision of security.
He said policymakers elsewhere had to recognise that the dangers faced by Spain and southern Europe extended to terrorism and disasters fuelled by global warming. “They are related to civil defence and the real threat of the climate emergency in the Mediterranean,” he said.
Countries already hitting the 2 per cent target are determined to push back against the Spanish-led move.
“If we agree more defence funding is urgently needed to stave off a ‘clear and present danger’, then everything else is secondary,” said one diplomat.
“It’s nothing more than naked opportunism for member states to be asking for more funding and grants, while at the same time arguing to spend this on anything other than defence.”
Another said they expected Mediterranean countries to contribute little to boost spending on conventional land forces.
“The northern and eastern member states could end up having to do most. Others don’t view the Russian threat the same way. They are geographically far away.”
The EU has agreed to exempt certain defence-related expenses from its fiscal rules capping budget deficits and public debt.
But at a meeting of finance ministers earlier this week, Spain and Italy failed to get much traction for their push to accept a broader definition of what counts as military expenditure. Rome also sought to include “competitiveness” in the carve-out.
After meeting Sánchez, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, the conservative leader of the opposition People’s party, said the premier “doesn’t have a plan” and called for any defence spending boost to be put to a vote in parliament.
Sánchez said “peace in Ukraine and prosperity in Europe are two sides of the same coin”. He refused to say exactly when Spain would meet the 2 per cent target and did not acknowledge that at a June summit, Nato is expected to raise the goal to 3 or 3.5 per cent.
Spain was on course to spend €19.7bn on defence in 2024, according to Nato.
But Sánchez said Spaniards would have to wait for the final figures before they would “know the effort that the increase in defence spending is going to imply for citizens”. Responding to the concerns of the hard-left, he stressed “we will not cut a single cent in social” spending.
