Eduardo González
The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, yesterday visited the NATO mission at the Adazi base in Riga, where he assured that the unity of the allies and Europeans is “right now transcendental” after the Russian invasion of Ukraine and, for this reason, “Spain is going to be where it should be and will do what it should do”.
“We are here to support our allies and friends in these difficult times and to send a very clear message to (Russian President Vladimir) Putin: NATO allies are united and the transatlantic bond is stronger than ever,” he said during a joint press conference with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and the prime ministers of Latvia and Canada, Arturs Kariņs and Justin Trudeau.
“I want to stress, once again, that our commitment is first and foremost to peace. NATO is a defensive alliance and all our actions, to date, have been deterrence efforts to avoid confrontation,” he continued.
“The Spanish troops are the second contingent here, in the multinational battalion, and I want to thank the dedication and solidarity and professionalism of our military,” he recalled, referring to the 350 military personnel stationed at the Adazi base since 2017 as part of Enhanced Forward Presence (eFP), NATO’s mission to maintain deterrence against any aggression to the Baltic allies. Canada currently commands the mission, while Spain is the second contributor.
“We are going to increase by 157 the contingent of our troops and we are ready to continue in our commitment to the gradual response plans” to reinforce the Eastern Flank and “prepared” to respond to the calls of the allies, Sánchez continued, who expressed his “pride” for “the dedication, solidarity and generosity of our soldiers.” As for the new deployment, the chief executive assured that “it is going to be done very quickly”, without further details. The dispatch of the 150 military personnel was announced last March 1 by the Ministry of Defense in compliance with the decision of the Alliance to reinforce the eastern flank after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“Spain will know how to rise to the challenge posed by the terrible humanitarian crisis caused by this war, with more than1.7 million people who have fled their country,” assured the head of the Executive. “We will stand by the Ukrainian government and the Ukrainian people to resist Putin’s unjustified attack” because “this is an act of aggression not only against the security of Europe but against what Europe stands for: democracy, multilateralism and freedom,” he added. “The unity of allies and the unity of Europeans seems transcendental to me right now and, of course, Spain is going to be where it should be and will do what it should do,” he said.
Economic sanctions
Regarding the economic sanctions against Russia, “one of the most forceful means we have to put an end to this war”, Pedro Sánchez described as “important” the proposal presented yesterday by the European Commission to reduce Russian gas imports by two thirds annually and achieve the goal of cutting European dependence on Russian fossil fuels by 2030.
“Unity has to be demonstrated from the point of view of economic sanctions and from the point of view of the response we have to give the international community, completely isolating Putin and also with economic sanctions against himself and against the oligarchy that has grown up around his regime,” said Sanchez, who held bilateral meetings yesterday with Arturs Kariņs, Justin Trudeau and Jens Stoltenberg and met with members of the Spanish detachment at the Adazi base.
At the same press conference, Jens Stoltenberg thanked Sanchez and Trudeau for their “personal leadership” and their “commitment to our collective security” and stated that “Spain is leading by example, by deploying additional troops, ships and jets to strengthen our defensive posture in Europe.”
