The Diplomat
The Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, traveled to Finland yesterday to meet with the command of NATO’s Permanent Naval Group 1 (SNMG1), led since last January by the Spanish frigate ‘Almirante Juan de Borbón’, and to meet with her Finnish counterpart, Antti Häkkänen.
“The Finnish minister has thanked us for the presence and commitment of Spain in this mission,” declared Robles after the meeting with Antti Häkkänen, which took place aboard the frigate ‘Almirante Juan de Borbón’, command ship of the naval group since last January 11 and for a period of six months.
According to the minister, missions such as SNMG1 constitute a basic tool to provide protection to countries bordering Russia, which “are really concerned about a possible escalation and expansion of the war zone.” “They are small countries with Armed Forces and capabilities that are also small,” she added. “Hence the importance of them knowing that all the countries of the Alliance have a common objective which is to guarantee security and stability, jointly,” she highlighted.
For his part, the Chief of the Defense Staff, Admiral General Teodoro López Calderón, who accompanied Robles, warned that, in the current context, “deterrence has become the reason for being of the Armed Forces, because “It is the best way to use them without having to lead to armed conflict.”
The frigate ‘Almirante Juan de Borbón’ operates in the North Sea and Baltic Sea along with other ships from Germany, Norway, France and Italy, carrying out hyper-realistic training exercises that are combined with the monitoring of the Russian navy in its capacity as a presence continuous for deterrence.
NATO naval groups are the forces that provide a permanent maritime presence to the Alliance and their operations have the objectives of deterrence, collective defense, naval presence and increasing interoperability between Navies.
After being informed about the first months of deployment by the commander of the SNMG1, Rear Admiral Joaquín Ruiz Escagedo, and the ship’s commander, Frigate Captain Raúl Alba, the minister met with the frigate’s crew and staff. deployed in the mission, a total of 227 troops, to whom he conveyed the gratitude of the Spaniards and her own for “leaving the Spanish flag very high, working for peace in a difficult mission at a complicated time.”
Robles insisted that Spain’s commitment to Ukraine is total and absolute, as it is in many other places in the world, and that, “where there is a Spanish ship, a Spanish mission, there is something very important, the effort, responsibility and vocation of service” of their military.
