P O I N T O F V I E W The great challenge is to make young people understand how necessary Forward Presence (EFP) and the Baltic Air Policing in the Eastern European Allied countries. We are committed to Afghanistan’s stability, to the security of the Turkish air space and to the future of Iraq. We sail the waters of the Mediterranean and the Atlantic. We are committed to an Alliance that looks increasingly to the South where we are aware that prevention and joint work with our partners from the southern shores of the Mediterranean are essential requirements for shared stability. In short, we can say that Spain counts in NATO and NATO can count on Spain. However, we cannot forget that, on its 70th anniversary, NATO is facing a complex strategic environment that combines quite different adversaries: some are old adversaries that are back; others are new such as hybrid and cyber threats or the challenge to understand China’s growing geostrategic influence.I shall now go through them briefly. First of all, on Russia. The illegal annexation of Crimea by Russia marked a turning point as far as NATO is concerned and the 2014 Wales Summit provided the stage for this tipping point. After many years in which NATO had focused on crisis management and had reduced its deterrence and defence posture, the Wales Summit represented a shift towards the East, a recognition once again of an adversary and the beginning of the reinforcement of the Allied deterrence and defence posture. Measures began to be taken to reassure the Eastern Allies and to strengthen cooperation with the more exposed partners, essentially Ukraine and Georgia. At the same time, and well aware of the need to keep dialogue open with the Russian authorities and to send balanced messages, NATO decided to continue in its bid —despite the annexation of Crimea— NATO is for a constant and, as far as possible, productive dialogue with Russia. Such an approach —which Spain fully supports— is nothing but a combination of a reinforced deterrence and defence posture and a permanent offer of dialogue, primarily through the NATO-Russia Council. The Warsaw 2016 and Brussels 2018 Summits made it possible for this double approach to be reaffirmed and for the adoption of measures aimed at the strengthening the military posture to be continued. Perhaps the best example of these measures are the Enhanced Forward Presence (EFP), to which we contribute with 350 soldiers in Latvia, and Baltic Air Policing, to which we also contribute through the deployment of a contingent of jet-fighters on a rotating basis. Secondly, I must talk about international terrorism. For NATO, terrorism represents a first order threat. And it is mainly since the emergence NATO 48 Revista Española de Defensa December 2019
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