Spain to host 2022 NATO summit

NEXT year's NATO summit will be held in Spain – for the first time in a quarter of a century, confirms the organisation's secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg (pictured right).

Spanish president Pedro Sánchez (pictured left) attended this year's summit today (Monday) in Brussels, where he very briefly met his US counterpart Joe Biden for the first time – although they were only in each others' company for less than a minute, the time it took to walk 20 metres down the corridor, they reportedly managed to touch on a number of key issues the two countries have in common.

Also today, Sánchez learned that Stoltenberg had chosen Madrid as the host city for the 2022 date – partly because of its being the 40th anniversary of Spain's joining NATO, in 1982, and partly 'in recognition of the significant rôle' the nation plays in the organisation.

Stoltenberg said Madrid's hosting the 2022 summit would be 'an ideal opportunity' for member countries to 'focus on the challenges coming from the south', in which NATO 'has great potential'.

These 'challenges' include the current diplomatic issues with Morocco, the sovereignty of the disputed Western Sahara territory, and the reduction in France's troops deployed in the Sahel region of the Sahara desert.

“If our neighbours are stable, we're also safer,” Stoltenberg argues.

He recalled that Spain had increased its spending on Defence and has taken part in numerous NATO missions with 'very strong contributions' to peacekeeping in Iraq and Afghanistan, the latter of which Spain concluded a few weeks back, bringing all its troops home.

Sánchez championed the decision to host the next summit in Madrid, saying that once there, 'many of the decisions taken by member nations in Brussels' today 'would become reality', including the 'new strategic concept' which would 'replace the one approved in 2010'.

The Spanish president says the NATO 2030 paper approved at today's meeting 'reflects a change towards a more political organisation, which will need to be stronger in military terms and more global' in order to deal with fresh challenges such as climate change and the Covid-19 pandemic.

“There are no longer any problems which are exclusively Defence-related, but Defence forms part of the solution to any security issue,” Sánchez says.

“The milestone we're going to achieve by holding this major summit in Spain shows our country's commitment to the Alliance, the Allieds' trust in us, and in particular, that of the secretary-general.

“Overall, today in Brussels has been very positive.”

As well as Joe Biden, Sánchez also made brief contact with the leaders of Canada, the UK and Turkey, Justin Trudeau, Boris Johnson and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, respectively.

During his chat with Boris Johnson, he and Sánchez agreed that the 'privileged historic relationship' between the UK and Spain was alive and well and agreed to strengthen ties between them.

With Trudeau, Sánchez discussed migration issues, and with Erdoğan, the Spain-Turkey summit expected to be held this year, with the leaders of both Mediterranean countries expressing a desire to include a business forum within it to stimulate bilateral trade.