Khaberni - American President Donald Trump announced that the United States might punish Spain by imposing tariffs in bilateral trade on imports for refusing to increase its contributions to NATO's budget.
This came during Trump's responses to journalists' questions in his meeting with his Argentine counterpart Javier Mile at the White House.
The American president commented on Spanish military spending by saying: "Actually, I thought about punishing them in the field of trade through tariffs because of what they did. And I might do that."
Trump believes that Spain not increasing its military spending to 5% of its GDP as other NATO members is "incredibly disrespectful". The President of the Administration emphasized that "they must be punished for that."
The American president, Donald Trump, had previously proposed expelling Spain from NATO due to what Washington considers insufficient military spending.
The American president said of the Spanish government: "They have no reason preventing them from doing that [increasing defense spending]. But that’s okay. Honestly, maybe they should be expelled from NATO."
Trump had announced last June that Spain would have to pay "double the price" after its refusal to increase defense expenditures to 5% of its GDP in NATO.
It should be noted that NATO members agreed during the alliance summit in The Hague, Netherlands, to increase defense spending for each country to reach 5% of its GDP by 2035.
In turn, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced that his country's investments in the defense sector are considered "sufficient and realistic", pointing out that his country will allocate 2.1% of its GDP to defense spending.
