Spain will soon present a new Defense spending schedule. In April or May, and certainly before the next NATO summit to be held at the end of June in The Hague. According to diplomatic sources, this document will reflect a significant approach to the 2% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) goal. So much so that Defense Minister Margarita Robles emphasizes that the country will reach that figure "much before 2029".
"I believe that well in advance, before 2029, we will meet our obligations (...) we are working on it in a serious and rigorous manner," Robles emphasized from Lisbon in statements reported by Reuters.
Therefore, Spain will significantly increase military investment. Most likely, part of this increase will be due to possible new definitions applied to the term Defense, as well as probable shifts in budget allocations to be directly counted as military spending. For example, expenses related to the Civil Guard.
The Government also indicates that there will be a real increase, although it is still unknown how it will be implemented or what internal negotiations the Government will have to finalize given that Sumar has been very clear in rejecting the increase in military spending.
This new projection by the Government comes just before the meeting of Foreign Ministers that NATO is hosting this week in Brussels, where Defense spending will once again be crucial. Additionally, this comes after the Secretary-General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Mark Rutte, stated just a few days ago that Spain wanted to reach 2% of military spending by summer.
This statement was later clarified by both the Government and NATO, suggesting it was a transcription error. However, in light of the new projections and statements, it seems very likely that Rutte was already aware of the Government's intentions.
Terrorism, cybersecurity, and borders
Returning to Spain's broadening of the Defense term, diplomatic sources suggest that aspects such as counterterrorism or cybersecurity should be included. This aligns with the Government's stance, which also adds other aspects such as border control.
Spain is making significant efforts in all these areas, so if they manage to include them in the calculation, which seems quite feasible, the relative GDP figure allocated to Defense would increase significantly. The Government is confident that they would no longer rank last in this matter within NATO, which is the country's current position.