NATO allies have agreed to adopt a new target of spending 5 percent of gross domestic product on defense while allowing Spain to opt out of the full commitment, alliance officials told Politico on Sunday. The compromise is expected to be confirmed during the NATO Summit in The Hague on Wednesday.
To accommodate Madrid, alliance leaders revised the summit language from “we commit” to “allies commit” to the 5 percent goal. This arrangement enables Spain to maintain a lower spending level as long as it meets NATO’s updated capability targets, which were approved earlier this month.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez welcomed the outcome as a “success,” saying Spain will spend 2.1 percent of its GDP on defense to acquire and maintain personnel equipment and infrastructure requested by the alliance. NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte backed the move in a note to Sánchez, stating that the agreement would allow Spain to determine its “own sovereign path” in meeting the capability goals.
Under the new agreement, NATO members will commit to spending 3.5 percent on weapons and troops and 1.5 percent on investments in military mobility and cybersecurity. Speaking earlier this month at Chatham House, Rutte said that NATO must “pull its weight” amid a U.S. that bears too much of the defense burden. He warned that Russia’s hypersonic missile capabilities make strengthening European defenses an urgent priority.
In April, Spain pledged to meet the 2 percent threshold this year — earlier than its previous 2029 timeline — by boosting its military budget by $12 billion. Sánchez said the increase would fund new telecommunications systems, cybersecurity enhancements and personnel recruitment, underscoring the need for the country to play a larger role in European security amid what he described as a “changing era.”