The NATO summit in Madrid this Tuesday (28) and Wednesday (29) should mark a kind of refoundation of the Western military alliance in the face of the prolongation of the Ukrainian War, and also mark the hardening of the tone with which Russia is treated by the countries. members.
“This summit will be a turning point and a number of important decisions will be taken,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told a news conference in Brussels on Monday.
According to him, the number of soldiers on standby in the eastern part of Europe will rise from the current 40,000 to more than 300,000, in case it is necessary to respond to a possible Russian attack, in a context in which the invasion of Ukraine is heading for the fifth month, marking the moment of greatest war tension on the continent since the Second World War.
The manpower will be spread across Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, Poland, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia and Bulgaria. Men in Germany will also be on standby, in what is the biggest overhaul of the alliance’s collective defense since the Cold War, according to Stoltenberg.
The meeting should also mark a change in the language with which NATO treats Moscow – in the current wording, enshrined in its Lisbon summit in 2010, Russia is described as a strategic partner.
“I hope the allies clearly state that Russia poses a direct threat to our security, our values, the rules-based international order,” the secretary said.
“Russia has abandoned the partnership and dialogue that NATO has been trying to establish with Russia for many years. They chose confrontation over dialogue. We regret that — but of course we need to respond to this reality.”
The summit comes at a pivotal time for the alliance, following internal discord during the era of former US President Donald Trump, who threatened to pull Washington out of the group. But Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February triggered a geopolitical shift, prompting two previously neutral countries, Finland and Sweden, to apply to join NATO, and Ukraine to begin the process of becoming a member of the European Union.
Alliance leaders will also step up their support for Ukraine. President Volodymyr Zelensky will address them via videoconference. According to Stoltenberg, NATO will supply Kiev with heavy weapons and wants to help Ukraine, in the long term, move from Soviet-era military equipment to modern equipment.
NATO allies have committed to dedicating 2% of their GDP to defense spending in 2024, but only nine of the 30 members have reached that target in 2022 —Greece, the United States, Poland, Lithuania, Estonia, the United Kingdom, Latvia, Croatia and Slovakia.
France invests 1.90%, Italy 1.54%, Germany 1.44% and Spain, the host country of the summit, is penultimate on the list with 1.01%, ahead of Luxembourg (0.58% ), according to data published this Monday by NATO.
“To respond to the threat, this 2% target becomes a floor and no longer a ceiling,” announced Stoltenberg.
