Rutte says Spain will have to spend 3.5% of its GDP on military spending
In addition, the NATO Secretary-General added that the commitments will be reviewed by 2029. Rutte has made it clear that "NATO has no voluntary clause to stay out of an agreement" and that "it does not know the secondary and side agreements".
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in The Hague, Netherlands.
NATO SecretaryGeneral Mark Rutte said today that Spain will have to spend "as a whole" 3.5% of its GDP on military capacity , according to the agreement that will emerge from the Hague Allied Summit, and that the commitments made in 2029 will be reviewed.
"Spain believes that it can achieve these targets witha 2.1% percentage. NATO is fully convinced that Spain as a whole will have to spend 3.5%, and now each country will report periodically on what it is doing in terms of spending and achieving its targets. In any case, a reviewwill be carried out by 2029, "Rutte said in the run-up to the summit on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Rutte has assured that all allies have agreed with the declaration to be adopted at the end of the summit, as well as with the capabilities targets that NATO will need in the coming years, as the defence ministers specified two weeks ago.
The new overall spending target will be 5 per cent of GDP, broken down as follows: 3.5 per cent for net military expenditure and 1.5 per cent for associated expenditure.
As far as Spain is concerned, Rutte has made it clear that "NATO does not have a voluntary clause to stay out of an agreement" and that "it does not know the secondary and side agreements".
However, "all allies, of course, have a sovereign right, as well as flexibility in defining ways to fulfil their commitment to NATO."
Annual reports
"That means how much they're going to spend every year. And that's exactly what we're doing," he said, noting that "the biggest difference" from thecommitment made at the Wales summit in 2014 , when allied leaders agreed to spend 2% of GDP on defense in ten years, will this time be "annual reports."
"By 2029 we will be conducting an analysis, including the international security situation," Rutte said, thus opening the door to the possibility of a collective increase in military spending.
"We are an alliance that we fight together and, if necessary, suffer and die together," he added.
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