USA:s president Donald Trump sade på onsdagen att Spanien hade varit "väldigt generöst" vid Nato-toppmötet tidigare under dagen – bara timmar efter att han kritiserat Spaniens ledarskap och beordrat ett stopp för handeln med det europeiska landet.
"Jag hade problem, och det har jag fortfarande. Men Spanien, de kom tillbaka hela vägen idag. Spanien var väldigt generöst idag", sade presidenten till reportrar ombord på Air Force One när han återvände från Nato-toppmötet i Ankara, Turkiet.
Spaniens premiärminister Pedro Sánchez tonade ner sprickan och sade att han hade ett "väldigt hjärtligt" samtal med Trump vid toppmötet.
Samtidigt mjuknade Trump upp tonen mot Italiens premiärminister Giorgia Meloni och kallade henne "en trevlig person" efter veckor av offentliga spänningar mellan de två ledarna, som en gång sågs som nära ideologiska allierade.
That's right, he says allies are stepping up now on their defense spending after years
of relying on the U.S.
Here's more on that.
President Trump is touting a successful NATO summit.
The president is saying alliance members ultimately backed higher military investment, but that
Madrid had resisted the effort.
I did have issues with Trump, and I still do, but Spain came back all the way today.
Spain was very generous today.
They honored the request for lots of payment, and if they didn't, we wouldn't even talk
to them.
They were very bad.
They behaved very badly, in my opinion.
But there was great unity in that room today.
The NATO was pretty much, pretty amazing, actually.
The president's comments follow months of tension after Spain refused to join NATO allies
in pledging to increase defense spending, Madrid saying it could meet its NATO commitments
in terms of staff or equipment without increasing defense spending to 5% of its GDP.
Relations were further strained when Spain didn't allow the U.S. to use its military
bases for strikes on Iran.
President Trump saying at one point yesterday the United States no longer wanted to do business
with Spain.
Spain's Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez, playing down the tensions.
Relations are positive.
Spain is a country that wants and works to maintain the best possible relations with
all countries, especially with allied nations.
This is not the first time we have been subject to this type of criticism, that Spain runs
a trade deficit with the United States.
European allies, meanwhile, announcing a major new investment in NATO's military capabilities.
Twelve countries are planning to spend $50 billion over the next 10 years to develop
a new long-range missile system.
Britain says the Deep Precision Strike initiative will radically strengthen NATO's ability
to deter future aggression.
I think they came a long way today.
They made some concessions.
I think NATO came a long way today.
And one of the things, we shouldn't be paying for the kind of money we've made.
The meeting today settled a lot of things.
It was a very, very good meeting.
And people understand that the United States, we've been treated very unfairly.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte says European allies are already increasing defense investment
in response to President Trump's push for greater burden sharing.
