Eduardo González
The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, yesterday assessed “very positively” the results of the NATO Summit in Washington, which have served to “consolidate the accession process of Ukraine” and have allowed the approval, “thanks to the leadership of Spain, the action plan for the southern neighborhood.
The Head of the Executive spoke yesterday (third and last day of the Summit) in the working sessions of the North Atlantic Council with the Asia-Pacific partners (Australia, New Zealand, the Republic of Korea and Japan) and the European Union, and at the meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Council, in which the president of Ukraine, Volodimir Zelensky, was present.
At the press conference after the Summit, Pedro Sánchez made a “very positive assessment of the results of this summit for the Atlantic Alliance and for our country” because “the objectives we had been pursuing have been achieved.”
Likewise, he expressed his “strongest condemnation of Russia's abject attacks against the Ukrainian civilian population, which reached their most terrible expression last Monday with the attack on a children's hospital in Kyiv,” and highlighted “the powerful message that we have just seen a few minutes ago from all allies with President Zelensky, a message of unity and cohesion that is fundamental for the main objective of this Alliance, which is deterrence, a deterrence that has to be effective."
Specifically, during the working session with Zelensky, all the measures that the North Atlantic Council has adopted to institutionalize the aid of the allies in the long term and irreversibly consolidate their accession to NATO were addressed. This support package includes the initiative for the coordination of the training and delivery of non-lethal military material, logistical assistance for such delivery and support for the development of the future Ukrainian force to ensure its interoperability with NATO forces.
The financial commitment to support Ukraine was also adopted, estimated at 40 billion euros per year, counting as part of the commitment the military assistance provided to Ukraine. In turn, a high-level special representative has been established to lead the NATO Representation in Kyiv with the mission of serving as an interlocutor with the Government of Ukraine and reinforcing the coherence of the lines of work with NATO, without contemplating, in no case deploy forces on the ground.
"I want to highlight that the final declaration of the Summit recognizes the process of Ukraine's accession to NATO as 'irreversible', which represents a great step compared to what was stated at the Lithuania Summit last year," declared Pedro Sánchez. "In short, it is a set of measures that, if they consolidate anything, is the process of Ukraine's accession to NATO and, of course, the unity of all allies in the defense of a country that wants to exist, be free and freely decide your future,” he added.
As the day before, Sánchez described as “substantive progress” the approval, “thanks to the leadership of Spain”, of the action plan for the southern neighborhood, “which gives continuity to the Madrid Strategic Concept and which is one of the great objectives that we had set for ourselves as Spain and as NATO at this Summit.” “Now it is about moving from words to action, developing that plan through dialogue and ever-widening cooperation with our southern partners,” he warned. “In this context, a special representative of the secretary general for the south will also be appointed who will allow progress in this direction,” added Sánchez, who did not want to specify whether Spain is considering the possibility of offering a candidate for the position, as Italy has already announced. “The important thing is that it has been approved,” he responded.
On the sidelines of the meeting with the Asia-Pacific partners and the European Union, the President of the Government held a bilateral meeting with the Prime Minister of New Zealand, Christopher Luxon, to whom he conveyed Spain's willingness to continue promoting the bilateral relationship. within the framework of the Strategic Partnership started in 2022
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