This Saturday in Munich, Spain championed the fight against atomic proliferation. He launched his statement in response to the expiration, in early February, of the , the last current arms control treaty between the United States and Russia. The President of the Spanish Government gave his speech at the same forum in which France and Germany announced the opening of a dialogue on a hypothetical European nuclear deterrent force.
“I want to cordially ask these powerful nations: ‘Please sit down, negotiate. And sign a new Start treaty to ensure the continuity of the one that has just expired,'” Sánchez said in a brief introductory speech to a colloquium in . “The rearmament that we need most in the world is moral rearmament.”
Nuclear proliferation was not on the agenda of this edition of the Munich Security Conference. It has appeared in Sánchez’s speech. And, in a different sense, with the first contacts between France and Germany to extend the French nuclear umbrella to the rest of Europe, as revealed by the German Chancellor, in his speech on Friday.
It is an incipient project. And Merz made it clear that he does not intend to replace, but rather accompany, the American nuclear umbrella within the framework of NATO. The Franco-German plan also does not imply any atomic rearmament in the EU, where the only country equipped with the bomb is France.
Stop Putin
“We have to ensure our sovereignty, our territorial integrity and our security. But I firmly believe that nuclear rearmament is not the correct path to dominate,” Sánchez said in Munich. “We must stop [Vladímir] Putin, we must strengthen our deterrence capabilities, but let’s do it in a coordinated and precise way, which we can control.”
Sánchez participated in a colloquium with the president of Finland, Alexander Stubb; the Prime Minister of Denmark, Mette Fredriksen; and Democratic US Senator Chris Coons. When asked by the moderator, journalist Hadley Gamble, she had to give explanations about her Government’s decision of 3.5% of GDP, with an added 1.5% in other security expenses.
The Spanish president argued that the 5% target, as set, will make Europe “more dependent on the United States defense industry.” “For this reason,” he said, “we must focus not only on how much we spend, but on how much we spend together and, therefore, better.” And he defended that “we must also look at capabilities and contributions.” “Since I took office,” he said, “Spain has tripled its defense spending and doubled the number of soldiers deployed on NATO missions.”
Spanish contribution
Questions about Spain’s refusal to increase military spending to 5% of GDP are common in forums such as the one in Munich. Some senior Trump Administration officials seem to accept the Spanish argument. The US ambassador to NATO, Matthew G. Whitaker, recently recognized that Spain makes a notable contribution to common security, as the Undersecretary of Defense, Elbridge Colby, recalled in another colloquium in Munich. The leaders of Denmark and Finland, present at the discussion with Sánchez, defended the increase in spending agreed upon in NATO, but avoided entering into a direct confrontation with their Spanish colleague.
Sánchez conveyed to the Munich Security Conference, in which he was participating for the first time, an international vision different from that of other European leaders. And it introduced topics that have been absent or have occupied a marginal space, such as Gaza or nuclear proliferation itself. The socialist leader stressed that, if the territorial integrity of Ukraine is correctly defended, that of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip must also be defended. And he urged us to take into account the so-called Global South and its view of the West. In the eyes of these countries, for example, the expansionist desires of the United States in Greenland, a semi-autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark, for example, may represent a kind of endorsement of Russia’s expansionism in Ukraine, according to the Spanish leader.
“Of course we have to do everything we do before Russia, but we also need to engage in all global debates on climate change, health, poverty and inequality,” he said. “These are things that countries and societies in the Global South are asking Western countries and governments to confront and respond to. What worries me is that we are not doing it. We are just looking at ourselves.” The moderator added: “Let’s look at ourselves in the navel.”
