The Spanish Prime Minister reiterated this Wednesday that he will comply with the defense capabilities agreed with NATO by spending 2.1% of GDP and that the 5% target is flexible, as confirmed to him in writing by the Alliance leader.

Pedro Sánchez, who was speaking at a press conference in The Hague, at the end of today's summit of the Atlantic Alliance (NATO), said that Spain will reach 2% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in spending on defense and security this year and that in order to meet the new military and security capabilities objectives agreed on June 5th, the Armed Forces and the Spanish Government calculate that they need to increase this spending to 2.1%.

"Spain is strongly committed to these capabilities objectives and will meet them," said the leader of the Spanish Government.

However, Donald Trump, who had already said that"Spain is a problem" for NATO, threatened to punish the country in trade agreements for not meeting the target of investing 5% of GDP."It's terrible what they did," Trump began by saying."They want a freebie, but they're going to have to pay us back in trade, because I'm not going to let that happen," Trump told reporters at the end of the summit."We're going to make Spain pay double in the trade agreement," he assured.

Regarding the agreement that came out of today's summit, Pedro Sánchez once again said that the final text guarantees flexibility in the objective of member states spending 5% of GDP on defense and security, the result of"months of work" and negotiations between the Spanish Government and NATO.

Sánchez added that, in addition, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte himself confirmed this flexibility, and that Spain will be able to spend less than 5% of its GDP, in a letter that was made public by the Madrid government on Sunday and that the Spanish Prime Minister read to journalists today.

"I can confirm to you that the agreement of the next NATO summit will give Spain the flexibility to determine its own sovereign route to reach the Capability Objectives target and the annual resources required in terms of percentage of GDP to present its own annual plans," Rutte told Sánchez in the letter that the Spanish Prime Minister cited today at the press conference.

Sánchez explained that the 2.1% that Spain intends to allocate to security and defence encompasses the total expenditure agreed within NATO and which is based on 5% of each country's GDP (3.5% in strict military expenditure and a further 1.5% in other resources).

The 2.1% of GDP is a"sufficient and realistic" level of spending for Spain, being"compatible" with the welfare state and the international commitments assumed by the country, argued Sánchez, who considered today's NATO summit"a success", both from the point of view of"the unity" of the Alliance and of Spain's "general interest".