United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio has warned that his country is reconsidering its role in NATO due to countries like Spain, which denies access to planes and military forces operating in the war against Iran to the joint military bases of Rota and Morón de la Frontera.
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During a Senate hearing to report on the activities of his department, Rubio, one of the most versatile politicians in the Trump Administration, stated: “We live today in a world where some of those NATO countries, and I cite Spain as an example, openly boast about having denied us the use of those military bases. Therefore, if the fundamental reason for our stay in NATO, the benefit we get from it, is precisely the ability to use its bases, and it turns out that we have members of that same alliance who, in practice, deny us the use of those bases in a contingency situation, then the entire premise must be called into question.”
During the public hearing at the Capitol, one of the senators asked the equivalent of the United States Secretary of State about the compliance of the Atlantic Alliance partners to raise defense spending from 2% to 5% of GDP. Rubio stated that “some countries are on track to do so, others are not.”
The Spanish government of Pedro Sánchez is one of those lagging behind. He said it will not reach it because he claims it can meet the strategic objectives that NATO has imposed on Spain with a lower budgetary expenditure. “It is a real challenge. [NATO countries] have made promises to increase their defense spending and offensive capability,” explained the Republican politician, one of the most active and trusted by President Donald Trump. He is assigned multiple missions, so many that memes (parodies on social media) abound about Rubio dressed in the attire of multiple professions such as firefighter, police officer, etc.
“In reality, [the spending] has to be on defense, that is the first thing. You cannot say that pensions for ex-soldiers and sailors are part of that 5% or 3.5%,” he indicated, while also noting: “The biggest challenge facing much of Europe, many NATO countries, is that their economies are not growing, and to spend more money on defense they will have to raise taxes or cut social programs,” he warned.
Rubio, who was a senator for Florida for several terms, added: “Part of the reality of NATO, like it or not, is that many European countries can build these very robust social security networks because they did not have to spend on defense, since NATO and the United States provided it for them. So they will have to face that reality.”