The president of the United States, Donald Trump arrived this Wednesday, 8, "very angry" at the NATO summit in Ankara and distributed criticism on all sides, with attacks on Danish sovereignty in Greenland, on Spain's military spending and on what he considers the lack of help from allies in the war against Iran.
In a conversation with the press alongside NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, before the formal opening of the summit in Turkey's capital, the Republican president spared no one.
"I'm very angry with NATO," he told reporters. "I'm not happy with NATO for what they did with Greenland, and I'm not happy with NATO because they didn't want to help us with the main state sponsor of terrorism, which is Iran. They weren't willing to help us," he said.
He resumed his speech that the United States should take control of Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark, classifying the island as strategic for global security.
The American president also once again threatened to break trade relations with Spain by stating that the European country does not invest enough in Defense and for having refused to use Spanish military bases in the American campaign against Iran.
"Spain is a lost cause. We don't want any more trade relations with Spain," Trump declared upon arriving at the NATO summit. The American president also classified Madrid as a "terrible" ally and once again demanded that the Spanish government increase military spending to reach the target of 5% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) allocated to Defense.
In response, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez's government stated that it received the statements "calmly and normally." In a statement, a source from the Spanish Executive highlighted that the commercial relationship between the United States and the European Union cannot be directed against a single Member State and highlighted that the economic, cultural and defense ties between the two countries are beneficial for both.
According to the Spanish government, the United States maintains a trade surplus in the bilateral relationship, which means that Washington exports more to Spain than it imports. The Sánchez administration also maintains that it fulfills its commitments to NATO by allocating around 2% of GDP to Defense spending, despite American pressure to increase this percentage.
After the statements, Mark Rutte came to Spain's defense and stated that the country took "a big step last year" in terms of increasing military investment.
It was also during the summit that Trump said the ceasefire with Tehran was "over."