All 32 NATO member states have agreed to increase their defense budgets by two and a half times: from two percent of their gross domestic product (GDP) to five percent, but Spain claims to have secured a more lenient arrangement to implement it.
This was announced today by diplomats in Brussels, a few days before the Alliance summit in The Hague.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, however, has sown doubts by claiming that Spain will opt out of the deal.
"Spain has just reached an agreement with NATO that will allow us to fulfill our obligations to the Atlantic alliance without having to increase our defense spending to five percent of GDP," Sanchez said in Madrid.
NATO negotiators this weekend, after objections from Madrid, finalized a final draft agreement on a drastic increase in the Alliance's military and security spending.
The agreement envisages an increase in military spending to 3,5 percent of GDP, and broader security spending to 1,5 percent.
However, Madrid secured an extension of the deadline for achieving this five percent target from 2032 to 2035, which Sanchez did not mention in his speech, according to diplomats in Brussels who have not confirmed Spain's exemption.
The compromise reached today should pave the way for an agreement at the NATO summit in The Hague on Tuesday and Wednesday, which would be a diplomatic victory for United States (US) President Donald Trump.
Since returning to the White House, Trump has demanded that European allies and Canada spend significantly more, demanding five percent of their GDP, and if they fail to do so, he threatens that the US will no longer defend them.
Spain on Thursday expressed opposition to the drastic increase, considering it unjustified.
"For Spain, committing to a five percent target would not only be unreasonable, but also counterproductive," Sanchez wrote in a letter to NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte.
A compromise acceptable to Spain was then negotiated.
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