The Madrid summit yesterday gave birth to a new NATO, a new Alliance for a new, unpredictable world, of powers in open competition and more dangerous, according to the analysis of the allied leaders, which for the first time since the cold war points to Russia as “ direct threat” to transatlantic security and unequivocally evokes the strategic challenge that China poses to its interests and values.
"Russia's war against Ukraine has shattered the peace and seriously altered our security environment," criticize the heads of state and government of the 30 countries of the Atlantic Alliance in the preamble to their new strategic concept, their roadmap for the next ten years. "We cannot rule out the possibility of an attack against the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the allies," they warn.
The allies' response to this new context is going to be to mobilize more troops, more weapons, more ammunition on their eastern flank, to show muscle against Moscow to make it clear to the Kremlin that any aggression or attack of any kind on a country of the Alliance it will be considered an attack on the whole organization and will not go unanswered.
Europe is not only militarized but also NATOized. The military organization is preparing the largest deployment of troops since the cold war to, in a few months, have more than 300,000 soldiers on alert, compared to the current 40,000, ready to act under NATO command. "Now the allied countries have to contribute forces to this new model" to make the announcement a reality, as said the secretary general of the Alliance, Jens Stoltenberg, who recalled that part of the troops assigned to protect the east will remain in their countries of origin, but they will train to be able to put themselves under NATO command without delay.
The main contributor to the deployment of NATO forces will, as usual, be the United States. Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, Washington has sent 20,000 more soldiers to Europe, a figure that will rise to 100,000 in the coming months with relevant reinforcements such as the two destroyers it wants to send to Rota, the opening of a new headquarters in Poland to strengthen the interoperability of its troops with NATO, another rotating brigade in Romania, new rotating deployments in the Baltic states, in addition to the reinforcement of air defense capabilities in Germany and Italy.
"Vladimir Putin was seeking the finnishization of Europe," said US President Joe Biden, alluding to the Nordic country's policy of neutrality towards Russia. “What he is going to have is a NATOization of Europe. It is exactly what he did not want, but exactly what we have to do to guarantee the security of Europe”, he sentenced. "We are sending a clear message to Putin: you are not going to win," summarized the President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez.
The strategic concept of Madrid reaffirms the validity of the military organization founded in 1949 with the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty in Washington and heralds a new era in transatlantic security marked by the actions of "authoritarian actors who challenge the interests, values and democratic way of life” of NATO, with actions that range from hybrid attacks to economic coercion, the instrumentalization of immigration or the manipulation of the energy market.
The Alliance openly accuses Beijing of "attempting to subvert the rules-based international order, including in the space, cyber and maritime domains." There is a nuance regarding Russia: “China is not our adversary” but “it poses serious challenges to us”, Stoltenberg pointed out. For the first time, NATO invited several countries from the Indo-Pacific area to its summit as partners, including Japan, which welcomed the allied initiative to open channels of communication about China's aggressive behavior. As British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss admitted, the fear is that China draws "wrong lessons" from Ukraine and invades Taiwan, "a catastrophic scenario."
NATO speaks clearly of the complicity exhibited by Beijing and Moscow in recent months. "The deepening of the strategic alliance between the People's Republic of China and the Russian Federation, with its complementary attempts to undermine the rules-based international order, goes against our values and interests," states the new strategic concept, which replaces the agreed in Lisbon in 2010, which referred to Moscow as a "strategic partner" and barely referred to Beijing.
Does NATO assume that the world is entering a new cold war? This reporter asked the secretary general. "Our relationship with Russia is at the lowest point since the cold war," but "the responsibility lies with Russia," Stoltenberg emphasized, recalling Moscow's history of aggressive behavior from the 2008 invasion of Georgia to the annexation of Russia. Crimea in 2014, events that culminate in the "brutal" open war against Ukraine. "It is Russia that has made it impossible for us to continue to pursue a partnership with them," he said, referring to what is now seen as a failed detente policy.
The allies connected by videoconference with Ukraine to hear first-hand from President Volodymyr Zelensky's assessment of the situation on the ground and the needs of his government to continue operating and stand up to Russia. "With an extremely aggressive Kremlin, the world needs an extremely brave Alliance," said Zelensky, who warned that if the NATO countries do not give Ukraine sufficient means to defeat Russia, what they are going to have is a direct war with Russia. Russia at a future time. For Moscow, countries like Lithuania "are not members of your alliance, but a republic of the USSR," Zelensky warned from a secret location, dressed in his characteristic khaki shirt.
The Alliance yesterday reiterated its support for Ukraine in the face of Russian aggression and promised to support the country "as long as necessary", also with the shipment of heavy weapons. Stoltenberg insisted on the idea that support for Kyiv is not only a moral duty but is also for the direct benefit of the allied countries. “They are fighting for their independence. But they are also fighting for values that are fundamental to NATO, such as the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries, and therefore important to our security."
For the first time, NATO's strategic concept also places its southern flank on its radar, a vast territory from which specific challenges such as terrorism or failed states can come, but also a playing field for Chinese and Russian influence. “The conflicts, fragility and instability in Africa and the Middle East directly affect our security and that of our partners. NATO's southern neighbourhood, in particular the Middle East, North Africa and the Sahel regions, face demographic, economic, political and security challenges,” the document states.
With Turkey's veto lifted on the accession of Sweden and Finland, the leaders of the 30 allied countries yesterday formally invited the Nordic countries to join the organization. This decision, Stoltenberg emphasized, "demonstrates that the door to NATO is open, that Vladimir Putin has not managed to close the door to NATO, and that we respect the right of each country to choose its path."
