The Hague, Jun 25 (EFE) – United States President Donald Trump criticized on Wednesday Spain’s refusal to raise defense spending as a NATO member to 5% of its GDP and threatened to make it “pay twice as much” as part of a trade deal.
“I think Spain’s terrible what they’ve done. No, I do. They’re the only country that won’t pay the full — they want to stay at 2%,” Trump said in response to a Spanish reporter’s question in The Hague, where he traveled to attend the NATO summit.
Trump added that he would negotiate directly with Madrid and has repeatedly expressed his frustration with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s refusal to raise defense spending to 5% of GDP, a commitment adopted by most NATO member states at the meeting in the Netherlands.
Trump stated, “I don’t know what the problem is,” after pointing out that Spain’s economy is doing very well.
Washington considers the current spending threshold to be insufficient and believes that all members of the bloc are capable of assuming such an increase. EFE
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