Spain Launches $12 Billion Defense Plan To Hit NATO Target
The country is investing in a stronger NATO.
Spain is stepping up its defense spending. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced a $12 billion military investment plan, pledging to meet NATO’s 2 percent of GDP target by the end of the year. The move ends years of underfunding and comes as pressure from the Trump administration and other allies grows.
The plan will push Spain’s total military spending to about $35 billion in 2025. Sánchez called it a “historic moment” and said the investment would strengthen Spain’s position in Europe and NATO. He also tied the effort to broader goals around security, technology development, and building military and civilian resilience.
About a third of the money will go to improving troop conditions and buying equipment. Another $3.5 billion will fund a “digital shield” made up of satellites, radar, encrypted systems, based on new tech like 5G and AI. Nearly $2 billion is set aside for defense hardware, and $1.75 billion will back dual-use gear for disaster response tied to climate change, including new helicopters, tanker planes, and a hydrographic ship for oceanic mapping and intelligence.
A portion will be used to improve safety for Spanish troops on overseas missions.
The announcement comes ahead of the NATO Summit in The Hague, where leaders are expected to debate raising the spending target even higher, though US calls for a 5 percent goal are seen as unlikely to pass.
Besides defence cooperation, the pillars under NATO are political (read democracy) and economic cooperation. The focus is currently on the difference in defence spending between the US and Europe. That seems to me far too one-sided a perspective. Past decades have been about package deals, in which e.g. the US benefited from European support in international relations and purchases from the US defence industry. I am curious to see a more complete cost-benefit analysis.
The current US administration has a habit of taking things out of context and then pointing to "injustice", such as subsidising Europe through the so-called "peace dividend". However, even under Harris, the US would want to recalibrate relations within NATO. It is right that Europe should do more on its own defence and certainly live up to its promises. At the same time, the alliance must be stricter on adherence to political principles, especially now that some have slipped into autocracy. An alliance within a stronger Europe can fight for this. The beauty of pluralism on the European continent, is that it can counterbalance leaders who fly off the handle with their countries.