The NATO Parliamentary Assembly, meeting this weekend at Madrid, It has made it possible to once again verify the unwavering support of the Atlantic Alliance for Ukraine, in the face of Russian aggression. In his speech, the President of the Government, Pedro Sanchez, has summarized the general sentiment of the Assembly by demand that Putin “leave alone” this country, in line with the secretary general of the transatlantic organization, Jens Stoltenberg, who has warned that the war could be long and that support for the kyiv government must be sustained and resilient. The fact that this Parliamentary Assembly – an independent discussion forum, made up of deputies and senators from the 29 NATO member countries and 15 other associated countries – has applauded a harsh intervention by the Ukrainian president, Volodimir Zelensky, Describing Russian leader Vladimir Putin as a terrorist, and calling for EU and NATO membership, confirms the impact of the war in Ukraine on discussions about the future of the Alliance. However, in view of the resolutions adopted, it once again becomes clear that it is not easy to combine firmness in the defense of Ukraine with the search for solutions to a war that fuels a global economic crisis and that could lead to a more serious conflict. wide, or in a regional catastrophe if nuclear power plants like the one in Zaporizhia are affected.
As usual in its sessions, the Parliamentary Assembly has dealt with issues that go beyond what happens on the eastern border of the European Union. However, as much as issues such as the impact that the climate change or the migration movements uncontrolled may have on collective security, the problem of cybersecurity, the truth is that the Russian invasion has dominated the debates and the resolutions adopted, such as the most prominent one, which rightly criticizes “the unjustified war against Ukraine” and denounces “the horrible war crimes for which Russia will have to account”.
The Assembly has made it possible to verify that the war in Ukraine has caused, not only a renewed interest in belonging to the Alliance from normally neutral countries such as Sweden and Finland, that will probably be admitted at the next summit in Vilnius (Lithuania) next year, but an acceleration in the implementation of the new strategic concept adopted by NATO at the recent summit in Madrid. Indeed, the debates and resolutions of the Assembly have been chaired by the idea of giving priority to deterrence and defense to face aggressions such as that of Russia, or those that could occur elsewhere, especially in the Indus region. -Peaceful. In this sense, the Assembly has approved a detailed resolution that urges the implementation of the new NATO strategy with the important and little debated implications that this will have. The deployment of brigades on the eastern flank, the rearmament of Germany and the priority to hybrid, space or cybernetic wars, and hypersonic weapons, such as those used by Russia in the Ukraine, to the detriment of the southern flank, crisis management and counterinsurgency. All this, with the consequent increase in defense budgets, up to 2% of GDP, a figure that does not represent a ceiling but a starting point, according to Stoltenberg in his speech.