NATO Secretary General Mark Ruttehas taken the side of Donald Trump in its insistent pressure to Pedro Sanchez to increase defense spending to 5% of GDP, although he has carefully avoided commenting on the threat by the president of the United States to impose tariffs against Spain.
Rutte has highlighted that the 5% objective It was approved unanimously by all 32 countries NATO members at the June summit in The Hague. He has also pointed out that Spain has already committed to complying with the military capabilities that it has agreed to make available to the Alliance.
Is Trump’s threat to impose tariffs on Spain for its refusal to 5% justified? The head of NATO was asked at the final press conference of the meeting of defense ministers held this Wednesday in Brussels, which was attended by the defense minister. Margaret Robles.
Rutte responded with a long dribble that seemed carefully prepared to support Trump without at the same time causing an irreparable fracture with Spain.
“President Trump has been extremely important for the NATO summit to be a success. I have said it before: without him, we would never have reached this 5% result, which includes 3.5% of basic defense spending,” the NATO Secretary General began.
“If anyone thinks that, without Trump as president of the United States, we would have reached this agreement, I think that would be very unrealistic,” he insisted.
“We have really achieved this for two reasons: because we must achieve the capability objectives, and because we need to be prepared, in the event that Article 5 is triggered, to do everything necessary to defend ourselves against the adversary that attacks us, be it Russia, terrorism or anything else,” Rutte maintains.
The second reason to insist on 5% is to get the European allies to match the US in military spending. “So he’s really pushing for it, and so am I“said the head of NATO.
“The good thing is that in The Hague we had unanimity, the 32 countries, total unanimity, with Spain completely in agreement with the capacity objectives. I think that is important to highlight,” he concluded.