Spain will buy weapons from the US to send to Ukraine.

BrusselsDonald Trump's pressure on NATO's European allies continues to have an effect. Although the US president sees Spain as a wayward partner in the Atlantic Alliance, Pedro Sánchez's government announced this Thursday that it will join. one of the most controversial initiatives of the military entity and will purchase US weapons to help Ukrainian troops defend themselves against the invasion of Vladimir Putin's regime.

Initially, countries in the south of the continent, such as France, Spain, and Italy, seemed reluctant to accept this program (PURL, Ukraine's Priority Request List), which was promoted by Trump with the aim of making his allies pay even more of the war bill. However, the Moncloa completely changed its mind at the start of the European summit this Thursday in Brussels, where Sánchez will meet with his European counterparts to discuss, among other issues, how to continue helping Kiev and increasing the pressure on Moscow.

"A large majority of Atlantic Alliance countries have decided to contribute to the PURL. Spain is among them, faithful to our commitment to help the Ukrainian people for as long as necessary, until Putin stops the cruel and illegal aggression, and a just peace is reached. However, member states such as Italy and France remain on the sidelines of the initiative.

The Atlantic allies that joined the initiative the most and most vigorously were countries with a greater Atlantic tradition, especially in military matters, such as Germany, the Netherlands, Canada, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. During the month of August, these partners sent US weapons worth almost €2 billion to Ukraine. Among other items, Patriot anti-aircraft missiles and Himars long-range rockets were sent.

At the last NATO Defense Ministerial meeting, more states joined: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belgium, Luxembourg, Finland, and Iceland. Kiev expects that by the end of this month the allies will have spent around €3.5 billion on this initiative, although the official figure has not been made public. In fact, sources at the Moncloa also do not clarify exactly what funding Spain will provide and what weapons it plans to supply to the Ukrainian troops.

The tense relationship between Sánchez and Trump

The Spanish government's announcement could be an opportunity to cool tensions between Sánchez and Trump over the Moncloa's refusal to spend 5% of Spain's gross domestic product (GDP) on defense, as imposed by the Pentagon through NATO. Thus, it could be interpreted as a diplomatic gesture from Madrid in Washington, especially considering that, at least at this time, other southern European allies with a similar stance toward Spain on military matters, such as France, Italy, and Portugal, have not made this decision.

Be that as it may, relations between the two countries remain tense, and the US president has once again criticized Spain for refusing to meet the rearmament rates agreed upon by the Atlantic Alliance. "Spain is not a teammate," Trump told the media from the White House, where he met with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte. He even pressured the Dutch leader, telling him that he "could easily fix it." "You should talk to Spain," he insisted.

In turn, Sánchez responded to Trump's criticism and asserted that he has met the target he had set for this year of spending at least 2% of GDP on defense. He also took the opportunity to once again attack the opposition and expressed confidence that the US president "knows" that it was the previous Spanish administrations that were failing to comply. "The PP committed to 2% in 2014, and in 2017, we found that Spain was only dedicating 0.9%," the Socialist leader said.