The Defense Minister, Margarita Robles, and the United States Ambassador to Spain, Julissa Reynoso, signed the agreement for the deployment of two additional United States Navy ships at the Naval Base of Broken. The expansion —with which the base will go from four to six destroyers— will not go through the Congress of Deputies.
The signing is a consequence of the commitment expressed in the joint declaration that the presidents of the United States and the Government of Spain adopted on June 28, 2022 during the meeting held on the margins of the NATO Summit, in Madrid, to update and further strengthen the strategic relationship between both countries.
As reported by the Ministry of Defense, the agreement allows the authorization to station at the Rota Naval Base to be extended from four to six ships, without modifying the missions or the types of forces or maximum force levels, both for civilian personnel and US military currently authorized for said Base in the Defense Cooperation Agreement, which is still fully in force.
The department directed by Robles emphasizes that with this heading Spain and the United States thus reiterate their commitment to the Atlantic Alliance in this new context of the war in Ukraine and the security environment in Europe, while sharing their concern about the situation in the Mediterranean and Africa and also conveying a message of responsibility and calm in our direction to the South, to which this agreement confers singular strategic importance.
The deployment of the two additional vessels is scheduled to materialize in the coming years, one in 2024 and the next in the coming years.
Despite the fact that the extension will not go through the Congress of Deputies, tomorrow the Minister of Defense will register a request to appear before the Defense Commission of the Congress of Deputies to report on this agreement.
Ambassador Reynoso commented at the ceremony at the ministry that the agreement "is more than a security document." "It is the reflection of a relationship based on shared beliefs: that democracy is the best system of government, that anyone in any part of the world can enjoy the guarantees and promises that human rights grant, and that the international order based on the law is the best guarantee of peace and security".
Reynoso has thanked Spain for "the extraordinary hospitality" it has shown for almost 70 years by hosting US military personnel and their families in Rota. This hospitality supports more than 5,000 Spanish jobs and makes US forces inject more than 280 million euros a year into the local economy.
"With this agreement to house two additional US destroyers in Rota, we expect the arrival of new servicemen and their families with the consequent increase in economic activity and job creation in southern Spain," he commented.
