Eduardo González
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, yesterday avoided specifying whether Spain will deliver Patriot anti-aircraft missiles to Ukraine, arguing that “Spain does not act at the push of an announcement” and that, in time of war, it is a mistake “to do announcements about material that is absolutely vital” for the defense of the country.
“We have committed to Ukraine to provide all the support it needs at this crucial moment for the country,” Albares declared at the press conference following the EU Foreign Affairs Council (CAE), held in Luxembourg. “This is what I have conveyed, on behalf of Spain, to my counterpart and good friend Dmytro Kuleba and the Ukrainian Minister of Defense (Rustem Umerov), who have connected by videoconference at the meeting” and who “have given us an explanation of the situation on the ground and also of the most urgent needs they have,” he added.
The High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security, Josep Borrell, highlighted yesterday during the press conference after the Council, the importance of providing air and missile defense systems to Ukraine and proposed coordinating the urgent delivery of these items at the level of the EU. During the ministerial debate, several Member States showed their willingness to consider specific aid or contribute to existing initiatives, such as the Czech one on ammunition or the German one on air defence. “There is a clear sense of urgency for the European Union and all of Ukraine’s allies to act,” he declared. “The most important way to proceed is to provide air defense batteries and ammunition for these batteries,” he added.
For his part, the president of Ukraine, Volodimir Zelensky, warned last week, during the extraordinary European Council, that Russia is destroying thermal and hydroelectric plants, something that “can only be stopped with anti-aircraft defense,” in reference to the Patriot, IRIS-T or NASAMS systems, “systems that you have” and that “are necessary in Ukraine right now to prevent Putin from resorting to terrorist methods.”
“There has been a lot of talk about Patriot in the room and it is a request that Ukraine has made,” Albares said in this regard during the press conference. “It is very evident, it has been made explicit by the high representative and the Ukrainian ministers, that the most urgent material at the moment is ammunition and anti-aircraft defenses” and, in this sense, “Spain has already participated and has contributed in both matters and “To the extent possible, it will continue to do so, as I have conveyed to the two Ukrainian ministers who have connected and to the rest of the European colleagues,” he added.
However, Albares preferred not to specify whether Spain is going to deliver Patriot to Ukraine. “It is not the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Spain who is going to air these things publicly and the specific details of the aid package that Spain is preparing,” he warned. “For the interest of Ukraine, we must maintain a certain reserve in this regard,” he continued, because “going into details is not going to help anything with what we want: what we want is not for people to know what Spain gives or stops giving, but rather it is effective for the defense of territorial integrity, sovereignty and Ukrainian civilians,” he assured.
“Spain does not act at the push of an announcement,” he warned. “I understand the media interest, but it is an extraordinarily delicate matter that I think is a mistake to communicate about” because “I don’t think it helps anything to make announcements about material that is absolutely vital for Ukraine,” the minister continued, in the face of insistent questions from journalists. “When we are in a war, revealing what material this or that Army unit is equipped with, when it is going to arrive, where it is going to arrive in Ukraine, I don’t think that contributes anything,” he added. “In any case, Ukraine knows that it can count on Spain whenever it needs it to the extent that it is in our power,” he assured.
Middle East
Regarding the Middle East crisis, Albares assured that he had taken the opportunity to announce to “all” his colleagues that “Spain will soon recognize the Palestinian State.” “I have had several meetings with several colleagues who have a similar or identical position to the Spanish one regarding recognition and we have also supported holding as soon as possible, before the summer if possible, a preparatory peace conference along the lines of the peace conference that Spain has proposed,” he indicated.
“On these issues, the Middle East, the peace conference, the recognition of the Palestinian State, I have had the opportunity to speak with my counterparts from Saudi Arabia and Qatar, and I have thanked them for their efforts to achieve an end to the violence in Middle East, to achieve the release of the hostages and to prevent the regional extension of the conflict, and I have asked you to maintain this indispensable work and also to join forces so that peace is definitive in the Middle East as soon as possible,” he concluded.
