US President Donald Trump suggested that Spain should be “thrown out” of NATO as he met with his Finnish counterpart Alexander Stubb in the White House on Thursday.

Axar.az informs, citing Euronews, the meeting, supposed to be the prelude to Finland’s purchasing of US icebreaker ships, steered into a discussion on the defence alliance, as Trump looked to reignite his months-long feud with the Iberian nation over disagreements on defence spending.

Trump has long clashed with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez since late June’s NATO summit in The Hague, where just days before the alliance’s leaders convened, Sanchez announced that Spain, will not be complying with Trump’s demands of increasing defence spending to 5% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), up from previous targets of 2%.

“As you know, I requested that they pay five percent, not two percent. And most people thought that was not going to happen, and it happened virtually unanimously. We had one laggard. It was Spain. Spain,” said Trump.

“You have to call them and find why are they a laggard, and they're doing well, too.”

The US president lashed out in an otherwise friendly Oval Office meeting, suggesting the country should be booted from the organisation.

“You know the funny thing? Because of a lot of the things we've done, they're going fine. They have no excuse not to do this, but that's all right. Maybe you should throw them out of NATO, frankly,” Trump added.

He’s previously stated that Washington was no longer willing to allow Europe to “piggyback” on its military strength, stressing that every NATO country has to “pull its weight” and contribute fairly to its defence.