A feeling of relief and euphoria ran through the hall of the Royal Palace of Madrid yesterday when the news of the white smoke in the negotiations between Turkey, Sweden and Finland on the accession of the Nordic countries to NATO, which begins today in Madrid a summit described as “historic” and “crucial”. The organization is preparing for its ninth expansion, a historic decision by two countries with a long tradition of neutrality that will add 1,300 kilometers to the Alliance border with Russia.
As if it were a careful choreography or a movie script, at the same time that the King and Queen of Spain received dozens of Heads of State and Government at the Royal Palace to attend the gala dinner that preceded the summit, the leaders of Turkey, Sweden and Finland sealed the agreement that, in extremis, has cleared the only cloud capable of overshadowing the allies' meeting. Shortly after, at the Santa Cruz Palace, headquarters of the Spanish Foreign Ministry, the Turkish ambassador was received by applause from his colleagues when he arrived late for dinner, diplomatic sources explained.
Unlike the summits of the European Union, whose end is always unpredictable to a certain extent, the Atlantic Alliance has the habit of arriving at its meetings at the highest level, such as the one that opens today in Madrid with everything practically tied, with no room for surprises. The only loose end, not a minor one, was Turkey's veto of the accession of Sweden and Finland, but the negotiations against the clock sponsored by the NATO Secretary General, Jens Stoltenberg, bore fruit at the last minute.
The foreign ministers of Turkey, Sweden and Finland signed a memorandum of cooperation in Madrid that includes the main demands of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to the Nordic countries and that allowed him to lift his veto on the accession talks, a process that is exceptionally planned brief given the close cooperation that already exists with NATO.
The document sealed in Madrid includes the commitment of Stockholm and Helsinki to lift the arms embargo against Ankara, review its anti-terrorist legislation and sign extradition treaties with Turkey, redouble the fight against the banned Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), in addition to “fully supporting” each other against threats to national security.
"The decision confirms that NATO's door is open and it is exactly the opposite of what President Vladimir Putin intended with the security agreements he proposed to us," said the Norwegian general secretary of the military organization. . "The message we send is that all countries have the right to choose their own path," he said. The entry of Sweden and Finland "will make them safer countries, make NATO stronger and increase security in the entire transatlantic area," Stoltenberg said.
Yesterday, the secretary general of the Alliance toured, together with the president of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, the rooms of the Ifema fairgrounds, on the outskirts of Madrid, enabled to host the summit and they were photographed together under 'El abrazo'. The iconic painting by Juan Genovés, a key work in the Spanish political transition, presides over one of the meeting rooms at the summit, the meeting with the largest number of heads of state and government in the history of NATO, which precisely aims to demonstrate to Moscow the unity of the allies and that yesterday was inaugurated with calls to the world – and in particular to China – to join the Euro-Atlantic embrace against Russian actions.
"The purpose is clear: to convey a message of unity from the allies and beyond, with the European Union and the Indo-Pacific countries," said Sánchez, after touring the summit facilities together with Stoltenberg. However, as King Felipe VI acknowledged in his speech at the pre-summit discussion forum, although the war in Ukraine “has shown that we must rally global support for the defense of the rules-based order”, the truth is "Gathering support beyond the Euro-Atlantic area is proving to be considerably difficult."
"We cannot stop supporting Ukraine because not all the countries in the world support us" or because "we give the impression of having some responsibility for the problems of the world economy," said Stoltenberg, who defended that helping Ukraine to prevailing against Russia and remaining an independent country is not only "a moral duty" but "is in the best interest of our own security interests."
Stoltenberg openly criticized China for not joining the international condemnation of Russia's invasion of Ukraine and for "spreading false narratives" about the role of NATO and the West. "China and Russia are now closer than ever," said the Secretary General of the Alliance, who recalled the joint statement issued by Presidents Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin shortly before the start of the war. In it, for the first time, Beijing spoke out "strongly and explicitly" against the enlargement of NATO, criticized the allied leader.
In addition to the leaders of the 30 NATO countries, the highest representatives of Sweden, Finland, the European Union and Georgia as partners, as well as several countries in the region, will also participate in some of the working sessions of the summit. Indo-Pacific, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and South Korea. Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelenskiy will address the meeting via videoconference.
The Madrid summit, in addition to updating NATO's Strategic Concept and giving the green light to a historic reinforcement of high readiness troops dedicated to protecting the southern flank with more than 300,000 troops, wants to reaffirm the "open door" policy that defines the military organization since its foundation in 1949 and that Moscow rejects.
