JAKARTA - Spanish Defense Minister Margarita Robles admitted that the United States (US) praised Spain's contribution to NATO in strengthening Eastern Europe.
Robles said the Pentagon "congratulated Spain" for its "contribution to strengthening the Atlantic Alliance" by deploying more than 700 troops in Latvia.
"Faced with those who want to say Spain is not a committed ally, Spain is a committed ally... and the War Department [US Department of Defense] acknowledged that last week," Robles said at a security forum in Madrid on Monday, November 3, as quoted by AFP.
Last week, the US announced the withdrawal of several troops from the eastern European flank, NATO's front line of defense amid threats from Russia during its invasion of Ukraine.
US President Donald Trump also threatened tariff sanctions and proposed expelling Spain from membership if it did not meet its military targets for NATO.
Spain was considered the country with the lowest defense spending in NATO in relative terms last year.
In June, NATO's 32-member alliance agreed to significantly increase its defense budget to five percent of annual economic output over the next decade under pressure from Trump, who has raised doubts about the US's commitment to European security.
However, Spain insists it does not need to reach that figure, saying it must meet its capacity targets, rather than fixed spending targets.
The English, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, and French versions are automatically generated by the AI. So there may still be inaccuracies in translating, please always see Indonesian as our main language. (system supported by DigitalSiber.id)
