The summit of the NATO which begins this Tuesday in Washington was designed as a celebration of the 75th anniversary of the organization, founded in 1949 to counter the threat to European security posed by the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Hours before the start of the meeting, Russia has launched a new wave of attacks against Ukraine, a move that intensifies the pressure on allied member states to take urgent decisions to support the Government of Volodymyr Zelensky.
In Washington, NATO allies plan to promise Ukraine a total of 40 billion euros in military aid by 2024. It’s not about new moneybut rather the sum of contributions from member states on a bilateral basis and through the European Union. “Since the full-scale invasion of Russia, the allies have provided around 40 billion euros in military aid each year. The allies agree that this is a minimum level,” explained the outgoing Secretary General, Jens Stoltenberg.
In the case of Spain, the Government of Pedro Sanchez NATO believes that its share is covered by the 1.1 billion euros of military aid that was announced on the occasion of Zelensky’s recent visit to Madrid. In the end, NATO has rejected the 100 billion multi-year plan Stoltenberg had proposed to protect aid to kyiv against a possible return to the White House by Donald Trump. The general political instability on both sides of the Atlantic makes it impossible to plan for the long term. The financial contribution of the allies will be reviewed year by year, taking into account the needs of the battlefield.
[La OTAN renuncia a preparar un plan plurianual para Ucrania blindado frente a Trump]
Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orbánwho opposes giving military support to Ukraine and has just met in Moscow with Vladimir Putinhas succeeded in having his country excluded from these commitments. In exchange, he agrees not to veto the NATO plan. “It is an unorthodox solution in an organisation like this. Are we happy? No. But we have had to accept this exception because the objective was to maintain aid to Ukraine,” explains an allied diplomat.
The other big question that the Washington summit must answer is How to respond to Ukraine’s repeated calls to join NATOIn Vilnius, the allies agreed that the invitation to the club will be made “when the allies agree and the conditions are met.” Now the heads of state and government want to go a step further and put in writing that kyiv’s path to the Atlantic Alliance is “irreversible”but without setting any specific timetable.
In practice, this means putting Ukraine’s membership on hold again, at least until the war is over. A country involved in an open conflict cannot join an organisation based on a collective defence clause, because that would would force the allies to respond in solidarity to the attacks against kyiv NATO is therefore justified in entering into open war with Russia. In Vilnius, the lack of a concrete timetable angered Zelensky. As for Washington, Kiev has been informed in advance of the compromise solution so that its response will not be so negative.
Military expenses
NATO leaders will once again insist on the need to increase military spending to a minimum level of 2% of GDP to deal with growing global threats. In this chapter, the Atlantic Alliance has just placed its Spain as the Member State with the lowest military expenditure among the 32 allies. Our country will invest this year in defense 19.723 million euros, figure equivalent to 1.28% of the gross domestic product.
Compared to the penultimate ranking published in March, Spain has fallen two more places and has been overtaken by Slovenia and Luxembourg (1.29%) or Belgium (1.30%), in a year marked by the absence of general state budgets due to the paralysis of the Government of Pedro Sanchez.
Spain ranks last among the 32 NATO allies in military spending
Despite going to Washington without having done his homework, Sánchez will reiterate to the allies its goal of reaching 2% in 2029The President of the Government will also argue in his defence that Spain has already far exceeded the second objective of allocating at least 20% of defence spending to investment in military capabilities (it is already at 30%). In addition, our country contributes significantly to NATO missions and operations, for example in Latvia, Slovakia and Iraq.
The third major priority of the NATO summit is Enhance cooperation with Indo-Pacific partners to counteract the “authoritarian actors” in the region, particularly China. PFor this purpose, the leaders of Australia, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea have been invited to Washington.
“As we see in Ukraine, our security is not regional, it is global. Iran and North Korea are fueling Russia’s war with drones and missiles. China is propping up Russia’s war economy and providing microelectronics and other dual-use materiel for Russia’s war effort. The more authoritarian actors align themselves, the more important it will be for us to work closely with our friends in the Indo-Pacific,” Stoltenberg said.
NATO leaders will finally approve at the Washington summit an action plan for the southern flank, aimed at strengthening security in the Sahel and AfricaThis is one of the priorities introduced by Spain at the Madrid summit in June 2022. The next step will be the appointment of a special representative of the Atlantic Alliance for the southern flank, although it is not yet clear whether this will be done by Stoltenberg or by his successor, Mark Rutte, who will take office as the new Secretary General on 1 October.
Add Comment