The Diplomat
The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, announced yesterday during the NATO Extraordinary Summit that Spain will send new weapons to Ukraine “in the coming days”, after the leaders of the Alliance meeting in Brussels approved the reinforcement of aid to this country, including assistance in cybersecurity and the sending of protection equipment against “biological, chemical, radiological and nuclear threats”.
This was announced yesterday by the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, at the entrance of the European Council and after participating in the morning in the extraordinary Summit of the Alliance, which was attended by the President of the United States, Joe Biden. According to Sánchez, Spain is making a very active contribution in support of the Ukrainian people, both in sending military material for the legitimate exercise of their self-defense against Russian aggression and in humanitarian aid and the reception of refugees.
In this regard, the President announced that a new shipment of military equipment will be made “in the next few days”, in response to the request of the Ukrainian authorities. According to the head of the Executive, the shipment will consist of “defensive and offensive material”, but he did not want to give more details for security reasons. Hours earlier, the Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, declared at the Los Llanos Air Base, in Albacete, that there is the “possibility” that “there will be more shipments” of weapons “whenever Ukraine needs them”, but she preferred not to “give much publicity to these shipments, for security reasons”.
During his speech at the NATO Extraordinary Summit, Sanchez showed his support for the Alliance to continue sending arms to Ukraine to exercise its right to “legitimate self-defense” against Russia. He also reiterated Spain’s “commitment to the unity and strength of NATO in the face of Putin and threats to the international community” and supported the decision of the allies to extend by one year (until September 2023) the mandate of NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, with whom the President of the Government had a brief conversation before the beginning of the meeting.
Likewise, Sanchez warned that “solidarity is essential at this moment”, both with Ukraine and with the countries that are enduring greater humanitarian pressure. For this reason, the president asked NATO to “anticipate its support” to partners such as Moldova, Georgia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Apart from that, the chief executive reiterated his support for strengthening the deterrence and defense posture on the Eastern Flank, but “without losing sight of the 360-degree approach to our security,” attending with equal interest to the Southern Flank and the “destabilizing potential” represented by Russia’s growing presence in the Sahel. “The South is also the East,” he stressed.
Likewise, in statements to the press upon his arrival at the summit, Pedro Sánchez urged the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, to “stop the war, stop the invasion, withdraw troops and return to internationally recognized borders”, something that “unfortunately is not happening”, and warned of the “need to increase deterrence capabilities” and to discuss “what role China is going to play in the resolution of this conflict”. “Spain will always advocate a constructive role,” he said.
At the end of the Summit, the 30 NATO member states pledged to reinforce aid to Ukraine and to considerably increase pressure on China, but made it clear that they will not take any measures that could lead to an open clash with Russia, such as sending troops to Ukraine or the creation of an area exclusion zone. They also approved the deployment of four new combat battalions on the eastern flank, in Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria.
Alliance leaders also pledged to present their plans to increase military spending to 2% of GDP at the next Madrid Summit in June. “Security is not free and doing more will cost more,” Stoltenberg stated at the press conference following the meeting. Pedro Sánchez announced in mid-March the government’s intention to increase defense spending to 2% of GDP, an announcement that generated the rejection of Unidas Podemos (PSOE’s partner in the coalition government) and most of its parliamentary supporters.
The presence of Joe Biden in Brussels (both to participate in the NATO Summit and in the European Council) was the third trip of the American president to Europe since he took office and the first since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began, just one month ago. Despite the coincidence of both (and despite the fact that Spain will host the next NATO Summit), Biden and Sánchez did not hold any bilateral meeting yesterday. On the other hand, the U.S. president did hold meetings with the leaders of France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom, among others. According to the US ambassador in Madrid, Julissa Reynoso, told the COPE radio station, the reason for this is that the talks took place within the framework of the G7, which also met yesterday in Brussels and of which Spain is not a member. According to Reynoso, the White House maintains “direct” and daily contact with the Spanish government and relations between both parties are “extraordinary”.
For his part, Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares, who accompanied Sánchez in Brussels, held a meeting with his UK counterpart, Liz Truss, in which both said they were “committed to increasing pressure on Putin for his unprovoked aggression against Ukraine” and in which they also discussed Gibraltar and the UK-EU treaty negotiations, as reported by the Foreign Office via Twitter.
