Whitaker warns there will be ‘no exceptions,’ as Spain resists full spending target.

On Tuesday, U.S. Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker insisted that all members of the Alliance must allocate 5% of their gross domestic product to defense by 2035.

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“Every ally, including Spain, will need to live up to the Hague defense commitment. No exceptions. Every ally will have to do that,” he said at a press conference ahead of the NATO defense ministers’ meeting taking place Wednesday in Brussels.

“All allies agreed to do this. There were no exceptions. All 32 allies agreed to the same pact,” Whitaker emphasized, recalling that NATO’s Article 3 obliges member countries to spend on their individual and collective defense, to foster innovation and modernization across the Alliance, and to ensure that NATO forces “are ready for changing threats.”

Collective defense investment “will strengthen our balanced burden-sharing for security and build a credible deterrent force that protects the one billion people living in NATO territory,” he added.

“Ultimately, NATO has ensured peace within the Alliance for 76 years, but the world is too dangerous to take security for granted,” the U.S. ambassador stated.

Although at The Hague the allies committed to allocating 5% of GDP to defense—3.5% for direct military spending and another 1.5% for related investments—Spain said it would not need to invest that much to meet the capability targets assigned to it by the Alliance.

Madrid also obtained written confirmation from NATO that the pact allows some flexibility. According to Spain, spending 2.1% of GDP will be enough to meet its military capability goals, a position NATO Secretary Mark Rutte said he disagreed with.

Last week, U.S. President Trump suggested that Spain might need to be expelled from NATO for failing to meet the Alliance’s defense spending commitments.

“They have no excuse not to do it. But that’s fine. Maybe they should be expelled from NATO, frankly. They should call them [Spain] and find out why they’re lagging behind. And they’re doing well, thanks to many of the things we’ve done,” he said.

On Monday, during the “Peace Summit” held in Egypt, Trump mockingly asked attending leaders whether they were “working to convince” Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez of the need to increase military spending. Just a few hours earlier, however, Sanchez and Trump had exchanged a cordial handshake. In any case, NATO’s founding treaty does not allow for the expulsion of a member state from the Alliance.

teleSUR/ JF

Source: EFE

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