The Diplomat
The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, and the Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, met yesterday with the main companies in the Defense sector in Spain, thanking them for their commitment in the current complex geopolitical context.
The meeting was attended by Diego Fernández (Arquimea Group), Ángel Escribano (Escribano Mechanical & Engineering), José Luis Urcelay (Expal/Rheinmetall), Carlos de Cos (Fecsa), Antonio Caro (Granada Munitions Factory), Juan Antonio Escriña ( Gdels Sbs), Miguel Muñoz (Instalza), Antonio Llamas (Nammo Palencia), Juan Carlos Estrella (NTGS), Luis Furnells (OESIA), Joaquín López (SAES) and Justo Sierra (Urovesa).
Also participating were Gerardo Sánchez (Aesmide), Ricardo Martí (Tedae), Carlos Alzola (ITP Aero), Andrés Sendagorta (Sener), Jokin Aperribay (Sapa), María Eugenia Clemente (Aciturri), Juan Ignacio López (Aernnova), Jesús Serrano ( GMV); Santiago Bolibar (Hisdesat Strategic Services), Marc Murtra and José Vicente de los Mozos (Indra), Ricardo Domínguez (Navantia) and Alberto Gutiérrez (Airbus).
The Chief Executive thanked the managers of the Defense industry companies for their commitment in a very complex geopolitical context, in which Spain works to prepare for possible security threats and increase the level of strategic autonomy. According to the Moncloa press release, “Spain wants to make the sector a key player in the first European Defense Industrial Strategy, presented just a few days ago.”
At the meeting, issues were also addressed such as the importance for the sector of increasing investment in productive capacity and R&D and creating jobs, in addition to increasing participation and leadership in major European defense programs.
The president highlighted the Spanish Security and Defense sector, the fourth largest European exporter and eighth in the world. This industry has more than 400 companies spread throughout the national territory, employs more than 36,000 workers directly and generates high technology.
On June 14, 2023, Margarita Robles decided not to participate in a NATO meeting with representatives of the European and North American Defense industry to work on Euro-Atlantic arms production plans after verifying that the Atlantic Alliance had not included companies Spanish among the 25 invited firms. That same day, the minister held a meeting with the Secretary General of the Alliance, Jens Stoltenberg, to convey her discomfort and ask him to “reconsider.”
The next day, the minister went further and warned in Brussels, shortly before participating in the meeting of the Ukrainian Defense Contact Group and the ministerial meeting of the North Atlantic Council, that “anything that is done in the NATO on the Defense industry has to count on Spain” and, therefore, if this situation continues, Spain could “veto” the adoption of the industrial plan during the Alliance Summit in Vilnius. Finally, the Summit approved the Defense Production Action Plan, with which the Alliance hopes to increase arms production to address the decline in its arsenals due to Russia’s war against Ukraine and in which Spain does not appear.
