President Donald Trump attended the Defense Alliance Summit in Turkey and accused Spain of not contributing enough to NATO.
“Spain is a terrible partner for NATO. They don’t participate, they don’t pay. We want nothing to do with Spain. We want them to cut off all trade with Spain, including visits,” he told a news conference in Ankara with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte.
“I want you to stop even talking to them. They are hopeless bad people,” the president said.
This marks the latest development in President Trump’s dispute with Spain over defense spending. It is the only member of the military alliance that has not pledged last year to spend 5% of its gross domestic product (GDP) on national defense by 2035.
Spanish government bonds, which had already sold off before the press conference, fell further after Trump’s comments, with the yield on Spain’s benchmark 10-year bond most recently trading 7 basis points higher at 3.5408%.
spanish ibex 35 Stock indexes also fell, last seen falling more than 1%.
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