Sánchez made this announcement at the press conference that followed the extraordinary meeting of the European Council called to discuss European security, the situation of the war in Ukraine and the expectations that exist for trying to achieve peace.

The Spanish chief executive recalled the European Commission's new tools and instruments to facilitate defence spending, including the relaxation of tax rules ‘so that all Europeans make an effort to reach that 2%’.

He therefore made it clear that all countries must try ahead of what they had previously set, the year 2029, and that Spain is going to do so.

“The answer is yes,” he stressed in response to the question of whether Spain will bring forward the date set for achieving the 2% of GDP earmarked for Defence, although he did not specify any new deadline for achieving this.

He explained that this is what he is going to present to the leader of the People's Party (PP), Alberto Núñez Feijóo, and the other representatives of the Spanish parliamentary groups at the meetings he announced hours before and which he is going to hold next Thursday with all of them to discuss the situation in Ukraine and security.

He also explained that at the NATO summit in Wales in 2014, in addition to reaching 2% of GDP, two other criteria were agreed, the first of which is investment in new capabilities for the army, which must be 20% of total spending.

The first is investment in new capabilities for the army, which must be 20 per cent of total expenditure, and he explained that Spain is above this figure, namely 30 per cent.

The second criterion is participation in NATO missions, and Spain is in all of them except Kosovo.

As recently as 27 January, the Spanish government reaffirmed its commitment to increase defence spending to 2% of GDP by 2029, which marks the attempt by the country that allocates the lowest percentage of GDP to defence spending, 1.28% in 2024, to keep up with the rearmament efforts of the member states of the Atlantic Alliance.