Spain will significantly increase the presence of its soldiers on the “eastern flank” of NATO in Europe. Another 250 soldiers will be sent to a combat battalion in Romania, and 700 soldiers will be deployed in Slovakia, writes El Periodico.

This was announced by Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez at a press conference in Vilnius (Lithuania), where the two-day summit of the Alliance has just ended. “Spain will continue to contribute to the Allied efforts to achieve the just and lasting peace we have been asking for since the beginning of the war,” Sanchez said.

NATO agreed to strengthen its DDA (Deterrence and Defense of the Atlantic Region or Disusasión y Defensa de Área). In this context, our army will lead a combat battalion in Slovakia (to which it will send 700 soldiers).

The current “battle group” (a battalion-sized contingent of no more than 2,000 troops) that NATO has now deployed in Slovakia under the leadership of the Czech Republic is expected to grow to a brigade size of 3,000 to 5,000 troops. from different countries. According to an exclusive announcement by the Prensa Ibérica group, Spain is a candidate to lead the NATO brigade in the region. The more technical aspects of reforming the current battalion into a brigade are being worked out at the next Force Formation Conference, a meeting of the NATO Chiefs of Staff.

The President also announced that Spain will join the G7 agreement (the most industrialized countries), which will provide security guarantees to Ukraine. “In this way, we give Ukraine certainty in the medium and long term. This means that we will help Ukraine all the time and with everything necessary until the occupier leaves,” he added, without clarifying what these guarantees mean. for Spain. “They can’t come once every three months to see what’s going on, you need to give Ukraine a horizon after 500 days of war.”

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan conveyed to Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Wednesday his desire to resume Turkey’s accession to the European Union during the Spanish semester at the head of the community bloc. The two held a bilateral meeting at the request of Ankara, during which the Turkish leader offered to restart the accession process at a time when the EU resumed its enlargement policy with the candidacies of Ukraine and Moldova.

Government sources cited by Europa Press explained that Sánchez, as president of the EU Council, took note of Erdogan’s request and explained that the EU is in the process of considering the transformations and reforms it will have to face in order to recruit new members. With a rotating presidency, Spain can speed up talks and advance talks on pending reforms and accession chapters, although Sanchez insisted the decision rests with the 27.

The final communique of the Alliance summit in Vilnius recognized that “NATO’s southern neighbourhood, especially the Middle East, North Africa and the Sahel, faces interrelated security, demographic, economic and political challenges”. This situation contributes to the proliferation of non-state armed groups (such as the Wagner group), which include terrorist organizations. “It also enables the destabilization and coercive intervention of strategic competitors. Russia has increased tension and instability throughout the region. Instability causes violence against civilians, which includes wartime sexual violence, human trafficking and illegal immigration,” the Alliance acknowledges.

For all these reasons, the North Atlantic Council was asked to begin a deep and comprehensive reflection on the threats, challenges and opportunities for building relations with partner countries, international organizations and other relevant actors in the region, the results of which will be presented at the summit in 2024.

Spain has insisted for years that threats from its southern neighbors (the Sahel, North Africa and the Middle East) should not be taken into account, especially instability in countries such as Mali.

In this jihadist-stricken country, the post-coup government – ​​privately backed by Russia – has decided to expel 17,400 soldiers from the UN peacekeeping mission MINUSMA and fight terrorism hand-in-hand with Russia and mercenaries from the Wagner firm. Madrid fears that this will cause hybrid risks, ranging from waves of migration to the impact of drug trafficking and uncontrolled jihadism in the region.

After the NATO summit ended without clear security guarantees for Ukraine from the Alliance as an organization, everyone expects the most developed countries to make commitments on a bilateral basis. The focus was on a possible plan to guarantee Ukraine’s security, which the G7 countries were to present on Wednesday at the summit in Vilnius.

Russia has already warned the most industrialized countries against such a compromise in favor of Ukraine, warning that they will make Europe “much more dangerous for many years to come.” “By offering these security guarantees to Ukraine, these countries are undermining the security of Russia,” Dmytro Peskov, press secretary of the Russian president, told reporters, AFP reports.

The President of Ukraine accused the Alliance of not wanting to open a clear path to membership. The security organization only promised that his country would be integrated when the war was over. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi on Wednesday that he looks forward to the day when they will be “as allies.”

In addition to bilateral promises to increase the number of weapons, Kyiv obtained from this summit the creation of the NATO-Ukraine Council, a new forum that was first held in the context of the Allies’ summit in Vilnius.

The material was made with the support of the Rador agency