US President Donald Trump caused confusion over his comments about Spain during a meeting with Spanish officials. He mistakenly referred to Spain as part of the BRICS bloc, a group of developing economies consisting of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa.
Trump stated that Spain is “a BRICS nation” and threatened to impose costly tariffs on any business done between the US and these nations. However, Spanish officials clarified that Spain is not a member of BRICS and instead belongs to NATO and the European Union.
The mistake came after Trump was questioned about countries like Spain that do not meet NATO’s 2% defense spending target. Trump has previously expressed his desire for all NATO members to reach this target, which includes imposing tariffs on countries that fail to comply.
Source: https://apnews.com/article/trump-spain-brics-nato-tariffs-defense-spending-9871cf04825c92e073865ca8bede4077