Spain has announced a significant €10.4 billion investment to ensure it finally meets the long-standing NATO commitment of allocating 2% of its GDP to defense by 2025. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez confirmed the decision following Tuesday’s ministerial meeting in Madrid.
Spain currently spends 1.28% of its GDP on defense, well below the pledged 2% benchmark for all NATO members. This new investment is expected to close that gap. Originally, Spain pledged to meet the 2% NATO threshold by 2029, which was agreed upon by alliance members in 2014.
“Spain remains a pacifist country,” PM Sánchez said, emphasizing that the plan is designed to “deter those who might think of attacking Europe.”
The new “industrial and technological plan for security and defense” focuses not just on traditional military capabilities but also on modern challenges.To promote Spanish industry, PM Sánchez said that approximately 87% of the plan’s funding will be directed to Spanish businesses, with less than 5% being spent outside the EU. “The aim of this project is to make a new technological and industrial leap,” he said.
“In a world that’s dominated by uncertainty, Europe is hope and it is certainty—and that certainty must be protected by strengthening our security and defense systems because given what’s going on, it’s obvious that only Europe will know how to protect Europe,” Sánchez declared. “And Spain will contribute to protecting Europe.”
Despite resistance from left-wing coalition partners Sumar, who called the plan “incoherent” and “absolutely exorbitant,” Spain’s socialist government appears determined to push forward.
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte has also been vocal in urging member states to move faster on military investment, highlighting Spain, Portugal, Belgium, and Italy as examples of countries now taking meaningful steps.
“I tell them that, well, now I am calling you to ask you to deliver the 2% by the summer, so that collectively we can move considerably north of the 2% because we have to spend much, much more than 2%,” Rutte said.
NATO is expected to raise its defense spending benchmark to at least 3% at the upcoming annual summit in The Hague.
