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NATO Defense ministers convene in Brussels

Posted by Europe correspondent on

Brussels 13.10.2025 This week NATO Defence ministers, and the U.S. Secretary of War meet in Brussels. On October 15, Wed., they will discuss the spending targets, various aspects of aid for Ukraine, and air defense. This will be the first official meeting since the military alliance’s June Summit in The Hague.

There the alliance committed to spending 5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) on defense by 2035, with the exception of Spain. After the Summit the President of the Government of Spain Pedro Sánchez, has underlined that Spain will continue to be a key player in the Alliance without compromising its social model or its strategic autonomy. Sánchez said that the agreement reached between Spain and NATO that will allow Spain to fully comply with its commitments within the Alliance without the need to raise defence spending to 5% of GDP as had recently been proposed. He stressed that this agreement “is a success, because it will allow Spain to continue to be a leading global player, not only in the area of defence and security, but also in the economic and multilateral spheres,” and detailed the reasons why Spain will not increase spending to that percentage, respecting “the legitimate desire of other countries to increase their defence investment if they so wish.”

The President of the Government explained that NATO has always worked on the basis of the technical and human capabilities that allies need to neutralise the dangers and threats they face, and not on the basis of GDP percentages: “Consider, for example, that in some countries the average salary of a soldier is three times higher than in other countries that are also NATO members, or that defence capabilities cost half as much to produce or acquire in some countries as in others.” Armed forces experts, he added, have estimated that “Spain will need 2.1% of its GDP to acquire and maintain all the personnel, all the equipment, all the infrastructure requested by the Alliance to confront these threats with our capabilities. So 2.1%, no more, no less.”

President Trump was clearly displeased by the decision of the Spainsh government.
“As you know, I requested that they pay five percent, not two percent. And most people thought that was not going to happen, and it happened virtually unanimously. We had one laggard. It was Spain. Spain,” said Trump. “You people are gonna have to start speaking to Spain,” he continued. “You have to call them and find why are they are a laggard”. And then the President added: “They have no excuse not to do this, but that’s alright. Maybe you should throw ’em out of NATO frankly.”

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Spanish Defense Minister Margarita Robles on Friday said the nation is “not worried” about removal from the NATO alliance, despite quips from President Trump about the country being the lowest defense spender.
“We are not worried,” Robles told press in Madrid, the Associated Press reports.
She added later, “I believe that President Trump must know that Spain is one of the committed and loyal (NATO) allies.”

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According to the original frame, an estimated 3.5 percent of that 5 percent have to fund the “hard” military outlays, mostly weapons, vehicles, and ammunition. The allies have to structure, and coordinate the efforts to take the most efficient decisions.

At the June gathering in the Netherlands, the United States, which has insisted for increased European defense spending, will be interested to see what progress has been made to meet those targets and to check that the spending splurge isn’t backloaded toward the end of the 10-year deadline.

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