Spain shelves plans to buy F-35 fighter jets, El Pais reports
MADRID (Reuters) -Spain has shelved plans to buy F-35 fighter jets, manufactured by U.S. aerospace giant Lockheed Martin, El Pais newspaper reported on Wednesday, citing unidentified government sources.
The government had earmarked 6.25 billion euros ($7.24 billion) in its 2023 budget to buy new fighter jets, El Pais said.
But the Spanish government's plan to spend most of the additional 10.5 billion euros for defence this year in Europe made it impossible to acquire U.S.-made fighter jets, the newspaper reported.
Spain's Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced plans earlier this year to increase spending on defence to meet the current NATO target of 2% of gross domestic product, and later refused to raise spending to 5% during a summit in June.
Sanchez's position was heavily criticized by U.S. President Donald Trump, who threatened to impose additional tariffs o the country's goods
Spokespeople for Spain's Defence Ministry and for Lockheed Martin did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
($1 = 0.8634 euros)
(Reporting by Inti Landauro; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
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