NATO designates a special envoy for the south, referring to the Middle East and Africa. This is what we read in a draft of the final NATO statement, reported by a journalist from Reuters, which also specifies that the Atlantic Alliance will continue to support theUkraine “in his journey irreversible towards full Euro-Atlantic integration, including membership of NATO”. Not only that: in the final declaration it will be written that the NATO leaders meeting at the Washington summit undertake to give Ukraine at least 40 billion euros in military aid “within the next year” to help it fight against Russia. And again, confirmed sending the F16s to Kiev: a signal to both Moscow and Beijing.
Ukraine's membership of NATO
The inclusion of the term "Irreversible" in the final declaration was not obvious, but in the end the allies managed to find an agreement, despite the resistance of Viktor Orban's Hungary. NATO will be “able to extend the invitation to join the alliance to Ukraine when the allies agree and the conditions will be met”, we would also read in the draft which, despite the high-sounding words, does not respond to the main request of the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky who has been asking for a date for some time. However, the indication does not exist and cannot exist both because, on the one hand, it is not possible to predict how long it will take for the parliaments of the individual member states to give the green light to Kiev's entry into the Atlantic alliance, on the On the other hand, Article 5 of the NATO Treaty provides that, in the event of external aggression against a member state, tall the others come to the rescue. Translated: if Ukraine joined the Alliance while the war is still ongoing, the NATO countries would have to officially enter the conflict. The accession process is therefore defined as "irreversible", but how long the road will be is currently unknown.
“Naturally, the issue of Ukraine's future membership of the Alliance will also be addressed at the NATO summit, but this it will happen after the war“, the Foreign Minister said this morning Antonio Tajani, explaining that at the summit NATO is carrying out "a sort of twinning of common work which is preparatory to the future membership of Ukraine: it is a marked path but which will end after the war".
In the meantime, however, Ukraine gets something more practical: “I NATO countries have started transferring F16s to Ukraine“, announced Antony Blinken, on the sidelines of the Alliance summit. “Even as we speak, the transfer of F16 jets to Ukraine by Denmark and the Netherlands has begun,” the US Secretary of State announced.
“The F16s bring a just and lasting peace closer, demonstrating that terrorism must fail everywhere and at any time,” Zelensky said.
NATO: “China should stop supporting Russia”
In the final statement, NATO asks China, "as a member of the UN Security Council", to stop “all material and political support for Russia” in the war against Ukraine. According to previews, the draft would also read: "China continues to pose a threat to Europe and security."
The special envoy for the south
In the final draft there will also be space for the introduction of a new figure, that of the ispecial envoy for the south, strongly desired by Italy. Is between France, Spain and Italy the nomination race is already underway: “There are also some excellent Italian candidates. I believe that precisely because of the knowledge that Italy has of the entire Mediterranean area, starting from the Balkans to Africa and the Middle East, but also the Gulf area. We can make high-level names with knowledge of both NATO and the reality of the Southern flank available to the Atlantic Alliance,” said Foreign Minister Tajani speaking to the Italian press on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Washington.
The Spanish Prime Minister was also satisfied Pedro Sánchez, according to which a greater "commitment" of NATO for the problems of the "southern flank" of the Alliance is one of the aspects considered "important" by Spain. Instability, the effects of climate change, the Russian presence in the Sahel area and the activities of terrorist groups or human traffickers are among the main issues to be addressed, according to the Spanish prime minister. Sánchez added that the priority message of the NATO summit on its 75th anniversary is that of "solidarity with Ukraine".
And the Prime Minister also spoke about the Mediterranean Giorgia Meloni, calling it a "strategic quadrant not only for Europe but also for NATO and therefore requires greater attention". “In the conclusions we spent a lot of time recognizing a special envoy for the issue of the South and I think there are interesting signals but we'll see it at the end of the summit,” added Meloni.
Stoltenberg: 23 countries have promised to increase military spending to 2% of GDP
Until last year “there were few allied countries that respected the promise of invest 2% of GDP in defense and NATO spending” but “just in the last few years we have seen a dramatic increase in defense spending in Europe and Canada” and “this year 23 member countries have promised to do so, these are important commitments, it is a record number", the outgoing NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg declared in a press conference from Washington, who also reiterated that he does not see "any imminent military threat against any NATO ally", now that “Russia is completely engaged in the war against Ukraine.”
"Italy will keep its commitments regarding 2% of GDP to be dedicated to defense spending, but it will compatible with the situation, times and possibilities we have. We are taking small steps forward and I think that the commitment that is made in the Atlantic Alliance should also be considered, the work that is done at 360 degrees because it is not just a problem of money", said Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, speaking with journalists in Washington.
