Cumbre otan 2022
Last week, Madrid became the world capital.
Coinciding with the 40th anniversary of Spains’s accession to the Atlantic Alliance, the city of Madrid hosted world leaders during the NATO Summit.
The General Secretary of the Alliance, Jens Stoltenberg, assured that the choice of the Spanish capital to hold the Summit is “a recognition of the importance of Spain”, a country he described as a “strong” and “committed” ally.
Spain joined on May 30th, 1982 and we became the 16th member of the Alliance. It occupies the 7th position among the member countries thanks to the number of troops of our Armed Forces. It has participated in 22 operations contributing 125.000 soldiers. Currently, it is present in 6 missions.
As we were informed at an prior event to the Summit, the Secretary of State for Defense and the General Chief of Cabinet, discussed renewed initiatives, plans and projects for collaboration in Defense and Security Europe and NATO, an area in which Integra International is highly committed.
During the first day of the Summit, NATO leaders approved the Alliance’s new Strategic Concept, the document that will guide the transatlantic organization’s policies in the face of challenges and threats over the next decade.
The strategic concept agreed by the leaders of the Alliance’s member countries is based on “a 360º approach”, as they define it in its pages. With this new document, NATO groups its functions into three categories: deterrence and defence, crisis prevention and management, and cooperative security.
This document also guides the “political and military development” of member countries to prepare them for future threats and challenges. The strategic concept is renewed “to address changes in the global security environment and to ensure that NATO can continue to fulfill its key purpose”.
This line is the one that marks NATO’s new strategic concept, which states that “he Russian Federation is the most important and direct threat to the security of the allies and to peace and stability in the Euro-Atlantic area” and makes reference for the first time to China, which, without being an adversary, is a “challenge”.
As far as we, Integra International, are concerned, we participated in a top level Forum at the European Union headquarters in Madrid (European Parliament / El Confidencial).
During the second day, a historic NATO Summit came to an end, with a change of strategy, stronger and more united.
The main conclusions can be summarized as follows:
- A strengthened Alliance.
- The entry of Sweden and Finland into NATO.
- Reinforcement of advance defenses.
- Improvement of combat groups in the Eastern part of the Alliance.
- Increase in the number of high readiness forces (from 40.000 to more than 300.000 troops).
- Investment of at least 2% of GDP in Defense (per country).
In addition, during these meetings, Spain and U.S renewed their agreement regarding the Rota Naval Base. Since 2014, Spain has been hosting 4 U.S ships as part of NATO’s anti-missile shield, a figure that will increase with the deployment of 2 more destroyers.
The Rota Naval Base is key and of great importance for NATO’s defense against external threats as these ships have the flexibility to operate in the waters of Europe and Africa, from the Cape of Good Hope (southern Africa) to the Artic Circle.
This news influences Integra International in the projection and increase of the volume of work as far as the relationship between Spain and the United States is concerned, since we have all the necessary security clearances to respond to the logistics demands of Defence.
A Summit described as historic in which the Heads of State and Government of NATO member countries have shown themselves to be more united than ever and in which we have been able to participate.
