The Diplomat
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, will participate from tomorrow until Wednesday in the NATO Ministerial Meeting, which will be held in Bucharest and will address, as main issues, Russia’s war in Ukraine, the Alliance’s support to Kiev and other partners and the challenges posed by China.
As reported by the Alliance, on November 29-30, 2022, the meeting of the North Atlantic Council (NAC) at the level of foreign ministers will be held in Bucharest, under the chairmanship of NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. Albares will arrive in Bucharest a few dates after the holding of the first Spanish-Romanian summit, which took place in Castellón de la Plana. During the meeting, the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, and the Prime Minister of Romania, Nicolae Ciucă, addressed, precisely, bilateral defense relations.
From October this year until March 2023, Spain has deployed an air surveillance radar and 38 military personnel at the Schitu barracks and, from December 1 until March next, eight F-18 fighters and 130 military personnel will be deployed in Romania as part of the Black Sea air police mission. Precisely, Spanish Eurofighters took part last November 23 in joint NATO military exercises to test the air and anti-missile defenses installed in Romania.
As reported last Friday by Jens Stoltenberg during a press conference, NATO foreign ministers will meet in Bucharest with their Ukrainian counterpart, Dmytro Kuleba, to discuss Ukraine’s most urgent needs. Also, Stoltenberg reported that he will ask allies to provide more support to Ukraine through NATO’s Global Assistance Package, which has been delivering fuel, medical supplies, winter equipment and drone jammers.
The foreign ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia and Moldova will be present in Bucharest to discuss their growing cooperation with NATO in these difficult times. These three countries, according to the secretary general, “face Russian pressure in many different ways, so at our meeting we will take further steps to help them protect their independence and strengthen their defense capabilities.” Also attending the discussions will be the foreign ministers of Finland and Sweden. “It is time to finalize their accession process and welcome them as full members of our Alliance,” Stoltenberg concluded.
Following this meeting, Albares will leave on Wednesday for Poland, where he will participate in the 29th annual ministerial meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), where foreign ministers will review and assess the security situation in the Euro-Atlantic and Eurasian area, as well as the work of the organization in all its fields of activity. The annual meeting of the foreign ministers of the 57 OSCE participating States will be held on December 1 and 2 in Lodz at the invitation of the organization’s Chairman-in-Office, Polish Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau.
