Spain reaffirms its commitment to Ukraine with a new direct shipment of arms

Brussels, 24 Mar The President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, considered this Thursday the unity of NATO and the EU as the best response to Russian President Vladimir Putin for invading Ukraine, a country with which he ratified Spain's commitment by announcing a new direct shipment of weapons. Sánchez participated in Brussels in the extraordinary summit of the Atlantic Alliance, which brought together the leaders of the countries that make it up, including Joe Biden, and in a subsequent meeting of the European Council that was preceded by a meeting of the heads of state and government of the EU with the president of the United States. Both meetings analysed the evolution of the conflict in Ukraine (whose president, Volodymyr Zelensky, spoke at the first meeting by videoconference) and shared solidarity with its authorities and citizens. According to Sánchez, the most important thing in these events was to show the message of unity in the face of the “Putin war”, which is just now one month old. “The unity of all allies,” he said, “is our best weapon of deterrence.” Speaking at the NATO summit, Sánchez supported the Alliance continuing to send more weapons to Ukraine so that Ukraine can exercise its right to self-defence against Russia and, in line with this, announced a new direct shipment of weapons by Spain. Upon his arrival at the European summit and in statements to journalists, he said that “in the next few days” such a shipment will be made, although he did not specify more details for security reasons. He merely specified that there will be offensive and defensive material in accordance with what the Ukrainian authorities have requested. The Spanish Defense Minister, Margarita Robles, had already stated hours earlier that it was “a possibility” that Spain would send more weapons to Ukraine whenever this country needs it. The new shipment will be added to that already made by Spain in early March, when several aircraft transported 1,370 tank grenade launchers, 700,000 machine gun cartridges and light machine guns to a point close to the Polish border. MADRID SUMMIT Faced with the rest of NATO leaders, Sánchez considered that the collaboration between the Alliance and the European Union in this crisis is being excellent and shows the way forward to continuing to address future security threats. For him, NATO is demonstrating its responsiveness and strength, but it must adapt to face the new security scenario that has opened up the war in Ukraine. That is a task that he said has already begun and will continue to be addressed at the NATO summit that will host Madrid at the end of June. A summit that Spanish sources consider will be “historic” since the new strategic concept of the allies must be approved at a time marked by the war in Ukraine. That is why Spain will support at the Madrid meeting the further strengthening of NATO's eastern flank, an objective to which Sánchez recalled that Spain is contributing troops through its presence in missions in Bulgaria, Latvia or Lithuania. “And we're ready to do more as we adapt to the evolving environment,” he said. At the same time, however, he called for attention to also be paid to the southern flank and, in particular, the Sahel, where there is a growing presence of Russia, which led him to say: “The south is also the east”. As he did in his statements to journalists at the summit, the President of the Government appealed to the rest of the leaders to China to play a “constructive and intelligent” role in the conflict that would allow peace to be achieved as soon as possible. REFUGEE SUPPORT Sánchez also supported, at a difficult time such as the current one, extending the mandate of NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg for a year, with whom the President of the Government held a brief conversation before the start of the summit sessions. The Chief Executive once again showed Spain's commitment to hosting Ukrainian refugees, which according to UN data now number 3.5 million. In that context, he drew attention to the need to continue to assist countries receiving refugee flows and which have severely weakened institutional structures, such as Moldova, which, with a population of 2.6 million inhabitants, is receiving some 360,000 citizens from Ukraine. Sánchez recalled that Spain is already helping Moldova by hosting some of the refugees who initially moved there. Taking advantage of their presence at the NATO summit, the head of government held a conversation with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to whom Sanchez conveyed that he values his mediation efforts to end the war in Ukraine. CHIEF BB/PDDP (photo) (video)