Rutte balances his defense of Spain against Trump: "He accepted the military objectives."

Brussels / WashingtonNATO and the European Commission come to Spain's defense. Following Donald Trump's threats to punish Spain with tariffs or expel it from the Atlantic Alliance for refusing to spend 5% of its GDP on defense, a condition he himself imposed, both Brussels and the military organization—albeit with a more muted tone—have supported the Spanish government. Thus, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte recalled this Wednesday that the Spanish government "fully accepted the military capability objectives" agreed upon "unanimously" by the allies at the Hague summit last June. "I think it's important to keep this in mind," the NATO leader said at a press conference.

However, before recalling the commitments achieved by Sánchez, Rutte lavished praise on the US president for a long time. As usual, the leader of NATO, controlled by de facto Through the Pentagon, she has expressed her gratitude for the pressure the New York magnate has exerted on the rest of the allies to force them to reach 5% of GDP in military spending and has ignored all the threats he has made against Spain. "We have to thank him for that," Rutte repeated.

In turn, the Spanish Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, has sought to downplay Trump's constant threats and has assured that "they are taken out of context." The Socialist leader has even blamed the press for asking the president of the United States about his relationship with Spain and the fact that it is the only NATO ally that refuses to reach 5% of GDP in military spending.

In fact, Spain assures that it will be able to achieve the same military capability objectives as the rest of the allies without reaching 5% and that 2.1% will be enough. However, NATO doesn't believe this and is convinced that it will have to end up spending the same as the rest of the countries. In this regard, Robles maintained that Spain will currently maintain a 2% military spending target, although he noted that "absolutely no one can know what will happen" in the long term, in 2030 or 2035.

Brussels closes ranks with Spain

European Commission spokesperson Olof Gill reiterated in the United States that member states' trade powers lie with Brussels and warned that he would "respond appropriately" to potential punishment from the White House against the state for refusing to spend 5 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) on defense, as threatened. "As always, we will respond to any measure against one or more of our member states," Gill added at a press conference on Wednesday.

The EU spokesperson also noted that the European Union and the United States signed a trade agreement this summer that theoretically put an end to the tariff escalation initiated by Trump. In fact, if Washington wanted to impose new import duties on Spain, it would have to apply them to all EU member states and, therefore, break the trade pact and reopen the tariff conflict between the two powers.

However, the European Commission spokesperson sought to cool Trump's threats against Spain for not meeting the defense spending that the US imposed on NATO, asserting that this is a "hypothetical scenario." Thus, Gill currently rules out Brussels or the EU having to act against a new trade attack by the US administration.

It should be remembered that Trump already threatened to punish Spain with tariffs at the NATO summit in The Hague last June, although he ultimately took no action against the state and a few weeks later closed the trade agreement with Ursula von der Leyen's European Commission. In fact, it would be very difficult for the United States to punish the Spanish economy in retaliation at this time.

First of all, as the EU spokesperson pointed out on Tuesday, Trump should tear up the trade agreement and reopen the tariff dispute with the European Union. And then, he could only apply tariffs to the member states as a whole, not to them separately or individually. However, the United States could target some of the products it primarily exports to Spain, such as olive oil, wine, olives, electronic devices, or petroleum and mineral oils.

It should be remembered that this would not be the first time that the US or the EU have specifically attacked products from a particular country or region. Trump, for example, is obsessed with French champagne and wine, and Brussels had threatened to attack him.iconic products of the United Statesthat are manufactured in states where the New York magnate has obtained strong electoral results. Some of these items include Levi's jeans, Harley Davidson motorcycles, and bourbon whiskey, which is produced primarily in Kentucky.

Despite the export of some products from all over Spain to the US, Spain is one of the member states least exposed to the US. The European Commission has always pointed out in its reports that, if Spain ends up being damaged by Trump's trade war, it would be indirectly, through a slowdown in economic activity in other neighboring countries, such as Germany, Italy, or the Netherlands, which are major exporters to the US.

Spain's "calm" in the face of threats

Economy Minister Carlos Cuerpo has sent a message of "calm" in response to Trump's threats. "Absolute calm. Spain will continue to be a reliable partner within the framework of NATO because we have a clear commitment to increasing investment in security and defense," said Cuerpo, who assures that for the moment the government has not proposed any response to possible single tariffs on Spanish products: "We are not anticipating hypothetical scenarios.

Cuerpo, who is in Washington this week for the fall meeting of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, explained that he has not had "the opportunity" to meet with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, but that he hopes to meet in the coming days to discuss the issue.

Despite the threats, the minister's speech has been limited to insisting that Spain will continue negotiating with the US to strengthen trade ties and will do so within the framework of the tariff agreement agreed by the European Union. He also believes that in light of Trump's threats, his job now is "to explain clearly what Spain's current commitment is to strengthen investment and defense spending" and how "a step forward is being taken in this area."