Europe's military heavyweights have already said that meeting President Donald Trump's potential challenge to spend up to 5% of their economic output on security would be challenging.

As Donald Trump begins his second term in office, he has called for NATO members to raise their defence budgets to five per cent of GDP.

U.S. president Donald Trump has apparently confused Spain for a member of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, causing some head-scratching and jitters over possible tariffs in Madrid.

NEW US President Donald Trump asked if NATO ally Spain was a BRICS nation when quizzed on the country’s low defence spending. The gaff was embarrassing

After US President Donald Trump confused Spain with a member of the BRICS bloc, a spokesperson for the Spanish government responded, saying she was unsure why Trump made the comment. Trump erroneously said Spain was in BRICS when a journalist asked him on Monday about NATO countries like Spain which don't meet the NATO minimum of spending 2 percent of economic output on defense.