NATO countries meet next week for the first alliance summit since Donald Trump’s return to the White House. The US president wants members to spend 5 percent of their GDP on protection, a large jump from the current 2 percent target, which Madrid will only reach this year.

To decide Trump, Rutte has proposed that the 5 percent target includes 3.5 percent of GDP in purely military expenses and 1.5 percent for protection-related items, such as military movement and internet security.

The NATO decision-making process is based on consensus, which means one ally can block the other with one veto. At the beginning of this month, Spanish Defense Minister Margarita Robles stated Madrid would not prevent NATO allies from agreeing with a new 5 percent target, but its country would stay 2 percent for now.

“Of course, it is not our intention to limit the ambitions of other allies’ expenses or to obstruct the outcome of the next summit,” reads the letters sánchez, looking for either the flexible formulation that would make the optional target or a proper engraving for Spain.

Otherwise, Swedish political parties on Thursday agreed to meet the 5 percent target By 2032 and to borrow as much as 300 billion Krona (€ 27 billion) to do so.

Sánchez argued that Spain does not need to spend 5 percent of its GDP to meet so -called targets of its skillswhich means new objectives of the inventory of weapons agreed by NATO Defense Ministers earlier this month.