Madrid (AP) – Spain reached an agreement with NATO to be excluded from 5% of GDP protection spending, a few days before military alliance leaders gather at a summit, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said on Sunday.

“Therefore, Spain will not spend 5% of its GDP on protection, but its participation, weight and legitimacy in NATO remains intact,” Sánchez told a television address.

Sánchez said Spain will be able to maintain its commitments to the military alliance of 32 countries spending 2.1% of GDP on the needs of defense.

In the letters exchanged on Sunday between NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte and Sánchez, Spain was given exclusion and language about 5% of the expense target was made not to include “all allies,” Sánchez said.

On Thursday, Sánchez told Rutte with a special letter that Spain could not commit to the expense target. Mass threatened to break down the next summit in The Hague, which US President Donald Trump will participate, as any new spending guide must do with the consensus of all 32 NATO member states.

Last year, Spain spent 1.28% on NATO estimates on military spending, making it the lowest alliance speaker. In April, Sánchez announced that the government would increase protection costs to 2% this year, an action that received reactions at home, including several allies.

On Friday, Trump said Spain “has to pay what everyone has to pay,” calling the fourth largest Eurozone economy “a very low payer”.

“They were either good negotiators or were not doing the right thing,” Trump told reporters.

On Sunday, Sánchez said Spain “believes Europe should take responsibility for its protection, an idea associated with thoughts such as those expressed by President Trump.”

But he called the achievement of a 5% expense objective “incompatible with our worldview”.