A delegation of the, which brings together parliamentarians from the 32 allied countries, will visit for the first time at the end of this month Melilla, a Spanish city that is formally out of the Allied defensive umbrella, but whose security historically constitutes one of the greatest concerns of the Spanish Armed Forces.
The visit of the special group of the Mediterranean and the Middle East (GSM) of the NATO Assembly will take place from September 24 to 27 and includes Madrid and the North African Square. According to the draft program, the delegation, integrated by half a hundred parliamentarians from 17 countries. On Wednesday will arrive in the Spanish capital, where it will be received the next day by the president of the Senate, Pedro Rollán and will meet with high positions of the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Defense and Interior, as well as with the expert professor in Contribution of the Royal Institute El Cano, the main Spanish Center for Security Studies.
The main course of the visit of the allied parliamentarians will be their 48 -hour stay in Melilla, Friday and Saturday, where they plan to meet with the president of the Autonomous City, Juan José Imbroda, the Government delegate in Melilla, Sabrina Moh, and the General Commander of Melilla, the General of Division Luis Cortés, as well as with the local heads of the National Police Corps and the Civil Guard in the city. Also the one that is overwhelmed, since it houses more than 700 people with maximum of 512 places; and the Rostrogordo shooting field, where they will witness an exhibition of weapons and an exercise of army units.
The visit is the result of the impulse of the senator of the General PP of retired division and former general of Melilla, who presides over the special group on the Mediterranean and the Middle East and, since the last spring, he is vice president of the NATO parliamentary assembly. It is expected to go to the city half a hundred parliamentarians from the United Kingdom, Turkey, France, Italy, Greece, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Norway, Romania, Finland, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Sweden or Luxembourg. On the Spanish side, a dozen deputies and senators of the PSOE and PP are part of the delegation.
Fernando Gutiérrez has explained to El País that the idea of the visit arose more than a year ago, at the initiative of parliamentarians from several countries, and that the visit has been authorized by Congress and the Senate, after consulting with the Government, which not only has not put any repair, but will actively collaborate to the visit with the participation of four ministries: those of external affairs, defense, interior, interior and migrations. Although it is the first time that an NATO delegation goes to the Autonomous City, the PP senator recalls that in the past there have been visits of EU parliamentarians without problems. The program, he explains, focuses on the analysis of migratory flows, Spain’s defense policy in collaboration with NATO, the relationship with the southern neighborhood and the fight against terrorism. “There is no reason for Morocco to be angry. We maintain the best friendship and collaboration relationships with our neighbors,” he adds, advanceing to Rabat’s possible rejection, which claims the sovereignty of the two North African squares.
Ceuta and Melilla are out of the area covered by the 1949 Washington Treaty that, due to the fact that then Algeria was a French colony, excluded from the scope of article V the African continental territory, although not the Canary Islands. However, he points out among the missions of the Atlantic Alliance the defense of “the sovereignty and territorial integrity” of the allies, without putting geographical limits.
