NATO allies are pressing Spain to end its holdout on a stepped-up defense spending target that’s one of US President Donald Trump’s key demands for an alliance summit next week.

Spain is right to oppose increasing NATO countries' spending goal from 2% to 5% of GDP at an upcoming summit in the Hague, former EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell has said. The veteran Spanish socialist who stepped down last summer, wrote on X that the mooted target increase is an “arbitrary target to satisfy [Donald] Trump.”

Spain has rejected a NATO proposal to spend 5% of gross domestic product on defense needs that’s expected to be announced next week.