Topic:
Country: Spain
Delegate Name: Luci Perez-Simons
The Kingdom of Spain recognizes that while there might be some benefits to decreasing military budgets, the risks of decreasing such budgets outweigh the potential benefits. Historically, military budgets have been on the increase since the 1950s, aka the post-World War II era. High military budgets help nations protect themselves. As a result of countries having high military budgets, military spending makes up $2.2 trillion in the GDP. The main issue with high military budgets, though, is that the funding allotted to military budgets could be spent on other international aspects, such as education and healthcare. Some economists argue that if as a planet we reduce military budgets, then internationally more economic growth could be promoted.
Historically, the Kingdom of Spain has had a 7.2% increase in military spending in 2021-2022. The Kingdom of Spain is an ally of Ukraine, and because of such wants to dedicate more funding to Ukraine. The Kingdom of Spain has increased its budget by 2% for defense. Currently, the Kingdom of Spain spends approximately $17.2 billion on the military, and around 120,000 military personnel are employed by the Kingdom of Spain. As the Kingdom of Spain is a member of NATO, we deem it necessary to provide military funding for allies. Given this, the Kingdom of Spain believes that reducing military budgets could put some of our allies in grave danger, as well as ourselves in grave danger. Therefore, we believe that we should keep military budgets as they are, but we are open to negotiating to make budgets a little lower.
Overall, the Kingdom of Spain acknowledges the importance of discussing military budgets. The Kingdom of Spain has generally seen a trend of increasing military budgets over the past years (macrotrends.com). Additionally, the Kingdom of Spain acknowledges the UN Office of Disarmament Affairs publication in 2020 which criticizes high military spending.
Ultimately, the Kingdom of Spain believes that each nation should have the liberty to choose how much spending each country should receive. For some nations, their security and protection lie within having an increased military budget, while other countries believe that an increased military budget is not necessary for their country. We strongly believe in budget autonomy and urge that countries should not feel pressured to decrease their military spending.
