NATO: last day of a summit that will go down in history
Family photo at the NATO summit in Madrid, Spain, June 29, 2022. REUTERS - POOL
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The summit promised to be historic and was so for the member countries of NATO gathered in Madrid.
Many subjects have already been discussed: the accessions of Sweden and Finland have now been confirmed and NATO has also adopted its new strategic document for the years to come.
On June 30, the last working session of the Alliance takes place in Madrid.
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With our special correspondent in Madrid,
Romain Lemaresquier
This Thursday morning, the 30 member countries are meeting again for a new working session.
In particular, the final communiqué will be discussed, the heads of state must also speak to the press before leaving Madrid in the afternoon and put an end to this summit which will certainly go down in history.
A real turning point
The least we can say is that this summit keeps all its promises.
The differences between Turkey and the two countries which wish to join NATO, Sweden and Finland, are over, an agreement between the three countries has been concluded and the Turkish president has now lifted his veto on their integration.
The war in Ukraine, a real red thread during this summit, was also discussed at length and NATO is committed to providing more military and financial aid to kyiv.
Then, the 30 member countries adopted the famous strategic document which defines the political and strategic ambitions of the Alliance for the years to come, a document in which Russia appears as the greatest threat for the member countries and in which China is also cited for the first time.
A real turning point in the evolution of NATO.
[Among the immediate consequences] already reinforce the eastern flanks, those that are closer of course to Russia, from north to south, which is a vast project, and then set up a reaction force with very high reactivity.
There, NATO has set itself a very ambitious objective of 300,000 men whereas today it is rather between 30,000 and 40,000 men, and then with military capabilities, that is to say the the most modern adapted equipment, in any case those which provide the most precision, the most range of action.
We see them implemented for some of them in Ukraine, the artillery in range but also of course the aviation, the maritime part but also in the cyber defense field which is extremely important, even in space.
So that draws up a roadmap for NATO which is ambitious.
Even the 2% that we had set in 2014 at the Wales summit seems to be difficult, we have to make 2% more of GDP, which is obviously going to be difficult for the countries because of the current crisis.
So there are going to be quite tricky choices to make for all the countries, in particular for the European countries.
General Jean-Paul Palomeros, former NATO Supreme Commander for Transformation
► To read also:
NATO: the United States is strengthening its presence in Europe, Russia "not intimidated"
♦ Should we worry about China?
In its new strategic roadmap drawn up in Madrid, NATO cites China for the first time, worrying about the "
challenge
" it represents for its "
values
", its "
interests
" and its "
security
".
Beijing did not appreciate it, speaking of a “cold war mentality” promoted by NATO.
Concretely, does this mention change anything for the Atlantic Alliance?
Nothing on the ground anyway.
For General Jean-Paul Palomeros, former supreme commander of NATO for transformation, it is above all an invitation to reflect on Chinese influence.
"
NATO itself will continue to focus on its theater of operations, this has consequences for NATO countries which are led to ask questions about the impact of Chinese influence on their autonomy. , for their sovereignty, and therefore the extent to which that can in some way destabilize the NATO countries, and we know that destabilization in one form or another of a NATO country risks weakening the 'Alliance.
Look today, energy dependencies have a very clear impact on global security.
So in a global vision of defense and security it is important that we talk about it.
Especially since many heads of state and government who do not belong to NATO but who are partners like Japan or the
Australia are also present, so this is an opportunity to do a broad tour of the security challenges at the global level and to make China understand too that it has an interest in cooperating rather than moving forward alone at the risk of destabilize the balances which are already fragile.
It may also be a way of telling China: ''Be careful what you do with Russia''
".
A satisfaction for Emmanuel Macron
In the entourage of Emmanuel Macron, we are delighted to see NATO adopt a roadmap which takes into account the upheaval caused by the war in Ukraine, reports our special
correspondent Valérie Gas
.
"
It was necessary to draw the consequences of the current situation, the Euro-Atlantic area is no longer at peace
", we explain.
The Secretary General of NATO has also recognized that Russia now represents "
the most important threat to the Allies
".
This change of "posture" was expected by Emmanuel Macron.
It will take concrete form in a reinforcement of the forces of the Alliance on the eastern flank of Europe, and of course a reinforcement of aid to Ukraine, which responds to the request reiterated by President Zelenski who spoke by videoconference in front of the members of the summit.
France has affirmed its availability to participate in this mobilization.
At the Élysée, there is also great satisfaction in seeing that the complementarity between the European Union and NATO is no longer a matter of debate.
The accession of Finland and Sweden which has been recorded goes in this direction, because these two countries can be important “contributors” to European security.
From the French point of view, this NATO summit has enabled progress to be made both in the area of support for Ukraine and collective defence.
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