Spain to host 2022 NATO summit
Tuesday, June 15, 2021 @ 11:49 AM
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.
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