In a discussion held today at the Munich Security Conference, Finnish President Alexander Stubb chided the Spanish Prime Minister over his position on defence spending. President Stubb countered the Spanish Prime Minister’s explanation for refusing to raise his country’s defence, even implying that Spain is a defence consumer rather than a defence provider.
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said that Spain agrees with strengthening the European defence pillar within NATO, but when asked how this could be achieved without increasing defence spending, he argued that higher European military budgets would make Europe more dependent on the United States. Instead, he said, Europe should focus on improving how it collectively spends and coordinates its defence spending.
When asked whether he was buying Premier Sanchez’s answer, President Stubb retorted that he is buying a lot of defence equipment and that Finland wants to be a defence provider in NATO and not a defence consumer.
Spain has one of the lowest defence ratio expenditures in NATO at just 1.6% of the GDP and it is also one of the smallest contributors to Ukraine along with Italy.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen also joined appeals to provide Ukraine with offensive weapons and President Stubb also said that Ukraine can win the war against Russia if it is provided with the necessary offensive equipment.
You can watch the full discussion here.
Separately, in his speech, the Spanish Prime Minister said that he agreed with increasing Europe’s defences but disagrees with the construction of a European nuclear deterrent.
Newsroom
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