It was one of the priorities of the Government of Spain for the NATO Summit: that the Northern Alliance left reflected in its new roadmap —for the first time in its history— the threats to its southern flank. And so it will be. The Madrid Strategic Concept recognizes how instability in the Sahel directly affects the country's security, a "fertile" territory for terrorism. In addition, thanks to another claim by Moncloa, a specific reference to NATO's determination to "defend the territorial integrity of all allies" will be included, although without express mention of Ceuta and Melilla.
It has not been necessary to exhaust the two days of the Summit for all the allied countries to support the new document in which the lines of action of the Northern Alliance are set for the next ten years. After numerous drafts that have circulated between countries in recent months with the Russian war in the background, all the Heads of State and Government meeting in Madrid endorsed the new Strategic Concept during the first session of the summit. In the new roadmap, "all" Spain's concerns are put in black on white, as transmitted by government sources who were "very satisfied" with the agreement reached.
The first of them. A specific paragraph of the document — after the Russian enemy and terrorism — devoted entirely to threats coming from the south. Specifically to the Sahel region considered, along with North Africa and the Middle East, a source of "conflict, fragility and instability". A terrain that he describes as "fertile" for "the proliferation of armed groups, including terrorist organizations", but in which "destabilizing interference" by strategic competitors is also given rise ", alluding to Russia and China.
The Alliance warns that the "permanent" instability that exists in these regions can promote "forced migration and human trafficking." The Government has spent days focusing on the mafias that control immigrants as the main cause of the tragic jump to the Melilla fence that last Friday ended at least 23 deceased immigrants.
The second achievement, according to the same euphoric sources. In the final wording of the document it is stated — “a small nuance”, but “of great importance” — that NATO will defend “the territorial integrity of all allies” against “any aggressor”. In the previous Strategic Concept —Lisbon, 2010— allusion was made to “allied territorial integrity” and this, according to some experts, could leave territories not included in the Washington Treaty, such as Ceuta and Melilla, unprotected.
Other experts consulted by La Vanguardia do not doubt that an attack on the Spanish autonomous cities would have an allied response. However, Moncloa has fought for the defense of the territorial integrity "of all the allies", whose territory is limited in each Constitution, to be reflected. In this way, and although in the ten pages of the document there is no explicit mention of Ceuta and Melilla, the Government of Pedro Sánchez considers that the legal umbrella that would serve Spain to request support from member countries if any of the autonomous cities were attacked. The same sources insist that, despite this fulfilled objective of the Government, Ceuta and Melilla have never been unprotected.
Also with the Melilla crisis in the background, the new roadmap includes the use of immigration to destabilize countries as a threat to combat. During the more than a year and a half that the diplomatic crisis between Spain and Morocco lasted, ministerial sources conveyed on numerous occasions the passivity with which the Moroccan security forces had acted in the face of massive jumps on the fences of Ceuta and Melilla. In the retina is the entry of more than 10,000 immigrants -most of them minors- in May 2021 in Ceuta due to the inaction of the gendarmes. A completely opposite attitude to the violent repression used by Moroccan agents in the jump last Friday.
