Spain vows to meet 2% defence spending goal well before 2029, no new deadline

By Sergio Goncalves

LISBON (Reuters) -Spain will increase its defence spending to 2% of gross domestic product well before an original target date of 2029, but it is not setting any specific new deadlines, Defence Minister Margarita Robles said on Tuesday.

Among the 32 members of NATO, Spain has the lowest defence spending as a share of its economic output, at just 1.3%. Getting to the alliance's 2% target would require spending roughly an additional 10 billion euros ($10.8 billion) a year.

Last week, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said in a speech in Warsaw that Spain was now expecting to meet the 2% target by the summer. This prompted the Spanish government to tell Rutte it would do its best to get closer to the target by that time, according to a government source.

"It's not so much a problem of deadlines, but 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 said on the sidelines of an event in Lisbon.

Her Portuguese counterpart, Nuno Melo, whose country spent 1.55% of GDP on defence last year, also promised more spending in the coming years to bolster production and procurement of military equipment and technology in Europe.

"We will reinforce spending on defence, ensuring the balance of the budget and the preservation of social benefits," Melo said. "Investors have an opportunity in the defence sector in Portugal".

The head of Spain's main business association CEOE, Antonio Garamendi, said Spain's more pacifist policies should not prevent it from spending more on defence.

"The only way to have peace is to have prevention so that we aren't attacked," he said.

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has assured the alliance that Spain will play its part in Europe's efforts to bolster its defences, but he has also argued that countries located further away from Russia geographically should focus their spending on countering cyber attacks rather than stockpiling weapons.

However, in an interview with Spanish newspaper El Mundo, the EU's top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, said: "(Although) Russian tanks are not reaching the Pyrenees, we have to stick together on this."

"All Europeans helped Spain and other countries during COVID and now we must be united on military spending," she said, adding: "Solidarity is our greatest defence."

In his comments last week, Rutte criticised what he called "a sort of two-tier NATO", with countries on the eastern flank that are more exposed to a potential attack from Russia spending a lot more on defence than others. Rutte added: "the difference between a missile attack on Warsaw or on Madrid is 10 minutes".

($1 = 0.9269 euros)