The Diplomat
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, visited yesterday the 350 Spanish military personnel stationed at the Azadi base (Latvia) in the framework of NATO’s Operation Enhanced Forward Presence, to whom he conveyed “Spain’s pride in their mission”.
The visit took place on the occasion of the meeting of NATO Foreign Ministers, which is being held since yesterday in Riga, capital of Latvia. In the same framework, Albares participated in a conference on the future of NATO in which he defended the “dissuasive dialogue” with Russia to warn Moscow of what would happen in case of threatening Ukraine, because “it is always better to try to desist through dialogue than through a real military action”.
The minister also denounced the “unacceptable” use of “irregular migration as a weapon, using human beings as if they were bullets.” “There are many countries on the eastern border, but also on the southern border of NATO and the EU, that are willing to use human beings and human suffering as a weapon to put pressure on us and to achieve their political goals,” he added, in obvious reference to Belarus and Morocco.
Albares also urged NATO to “look and think south” because “all the asymmetric threats we have in the east we can also find in the south”, especially in the Sahel and Libya, despite “some improvements”.
