Federico Torres Muro discusses Spain’s position as a NATO member state in current armed conflicts
On Thursday 24 October, the Official Spanish Chamber of Commerce in Belgium held a new lunch-debate in the framework of its ‘Business Circle’ platform, in which the Ambassador Permanent Representative of Spain to NATO, Federico Torres Muro, spoke on ‘NATO’s priorities and challenges: Spain’s perspective’.
After the welcome cocktail, the president of the Chamber, Pablo López-Álvarez, opened the lunch and gave way to David Luengo, director of the Brussels office of Indra, sponsor of the event.
In his brief intervention, Luengo introduced the theme of the luncheon by recalling the ‘shock’ of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in recent years, which he described as ‘a wake-up call for many’. In this context in which NATO is trying to manage a new defence model, Luengo gave way to Ambassador Torres Muro to shed light on ‘what can be expected of Spain’.
‘We are at a critical moment, in the good sense of the word, for NATO,’ the ambassador began, recalling that during the relative peace of the decades prior to the conflict in Ukraine, EU states redirected public spending to health, education and social security.
Euro-Atlantic security
Nevertheless, in the face of the current armed conflicts, Torres Muro declared his conviction of the need to strengthen ties between the EU, the US and Canada. In this sense, he wished to make explicit ‘ Spain’s commitment to Euro-Atlantic security and to the Europe of defence’.
Among NATO’s medium-term objectives, he highlighted the commitment to increase industrial production and consolidate the defence industry. ‘Spain has a defence investment plan‘, explained the ambassador, who defended the fact that the Spanish state ’cannot remain outside the great defence debates ‘ that are taking place at the geopolitical level.
The presentation was followed by a round of questions and answers in which issues such as Spain’s position as a country of industrial production in defence and the coordination of armed efforts at the international level and the role of Spanish troops were raised.
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