Trump blasts Spain for being NATO's spending 'laggard.' Madrid replies that it is a 'loyal' ally

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BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Spain’s defense minister has defended her country’s commitment to NATO after U.S President Donald Trump floated the idea that the southern European country should be expelled from the military alliance for not spending enough on its armed forces.

In comments made Thursday while meeting with Finnish President Alexander Stubb in the Oval Office, Trump said that Spain was a “laggard” and must be pressed to spend more on its military.

“You people are going to have to start speaking to Spain,” Trump said. “You have to call them and find why they are a laggard. They have no excuse not to do this, but that’s all right. Maybe you should throw them out of NATO, frankly.”

Trump was referring to Spain being the sole member of the 32-nation alliance not to commit to increasing military spending to 5% of GDP in an agreement reached in June. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez secured a last-minute exemption, saying that Spain will only spend up to 2.1%, which he called “sufficient and realistic.”

Spain’s Defense Minister Margarita Robles told reporters in Madrid on Friday that “we are not worried."

“I believe that President Trump must know that Spain is one of the committed and loyal (NATO) allies,” she said.

The eurozone’s fourth-largest economy, Spain was NATO’s lowest spender last year, according to the alliance’s estimates, spending around 1.28% of its GDP on defense. In April, Sánchez announced that the country would reach 2% this year, for which he was criticized by some left-wing allies.

His left-wing government was already struggling to commit to spending 2% GDP on defense when Trump demanded a bigger boost to 5%.

Spain joined NATO in 1982 and entered its military structure in 1999.

Madrid says that it makes up for the spending gap by its willingness to deploy troops on NATO missions. Spain's military currently participates in alliance missions in Latvia, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey, among others. It is also a backer of Ukraine and has sent it military and humanitarian aid during the Russian full-scale invasion.