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United States President Donald Trump has threatened to suspend all trade with Spain, citing the country’s failure to meet the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO)’s five per cent of GDP military spending target.
NATO recommends that each member spend at least two per cent of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on defence, but some of its members, including Spain, spend below five per cent of GDP; only a few meet or exceed the two per cent minimum.
Trump expressed his frustration with Spain and other European countries that fail to meet this target while speaking in the Oval Office on Tuesday, alongside German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
“Some of the European countries, like Spain, have been terrible. In fact, I told Scott to cut off all dealings with Spain. Spain, first of all, started when every European nation, at my request, paid five per cent, which they should be doing,” said Trump.
“As you know, they were the only country in NATO that would not agree to go up to 5%. I don’t think they would have agreed to go up to anything — they wanted to keep it at 2%, and they don’t pay the 2%. So we’re going to cut off all trade with Spain. We don’t want anything to do with Spain.”
The US President also called Spain a “terrible ally” for refusing the US access to the Rota and Morón bases, two military bases in Spain for US military action in Iran, adding that Spain’s permission is not required.
“And now,” he continued, “Spain actually said we can’t use their bases. And that’s alright, we can use their base if we want. We can just fly in and use it. Nobody’s going to tell us not to use it. But we don’t have to,” Trump added.
