Sanchez Meets NATO Head To Prepare For Madrid Summit
The NATO Secretary-General, Jens Stoltenberg, visited Madrid yesterday Friday 8th October, where he met the prime minister, Pedro Sanchez, at his Moncloa residence and King Felipe at the Zarzuela Palace.
The next NATO summit will take place in Madrid in June 2022, where the alliance is expected to agree a number of steps as part of its NATO 2030 agenda which is designed to ensure that the “alliance is fit for the future.”
The Secretary General said that “the Madrid Strategic Concept will reflect the new security environment, recommit to our values, and reaffirm our unity. Ensuring that our Alliance is fit for the future.”
The NATO 2030 agenda, aims to address “growing global competition and more unpredictable threats, including terrorism, cyber-attacks, disruptive technologies, climate change, and Russia and China’s challenges to the rules-based international order”.
The Madrid Summit coincides with the fortieth anniversary of Spain’s accession to the military alliance which ” anchored Spain among the free and democratic countries of the transatlantic community.”
In 1986 the country also held a referendum over continuing its NATO membership which was supported by a majority of 56.9%
The Secretary General thanked Spain for its strong commitment to NATO, including its contributions to the training mission in Iraq, the multinational battlegroup in Latvia, its jets in the Baltic Air Policing mission, and numerous maritime deployments. “Spain is also a strong supporter of NATO’s partnership with the European Union. NATO-EU cooperation has reached unprecedented levels in the past years”, said Mr Stoltenberg.
Though Spain´s military budget has risen in recent years it represents little over 1% of GDP – significantly below the alliance´s target of 2% of GDP from all 30 of its members.
