The Government trusts the success of the Atlantic meeting to overcome the legislature pending the semester of the Spanish presidency of the EU in 2023
Everything ready for the great moment in which the Government has been working for a year. NATO is ready to show itself off to the world, albeit with Madrid turned into a veritable bunker and a mousetrap for the city’s 3.2 million inhabitants. The capital of Spain hosts from this Tuesday to Thursday the thirty-second NATO summit. An appointment in which the Executive of Pedro Sánchez puts a good part of its hopes to overcome the legislature at the expense of giving it the last push during the Spanish presidency of the EU in the second half of 2023.
But beyond national politics, the meeting of the Alliance in Madrid has become the most decisive in NATO since the end of the cold war. The summit that begins this Tuesday in principle had been designed more as an anniversary celebration of the 40 years of Spain’s accession to the alliance and to commemorate the 25th anniversary of that 1997 summit in Madrid that consecrated Spain as one of the main members of the Atlantic Pact.
Weeks of heightened tension with the Kremlin in winter and Putin’s decision in February to invade Ukraine prompted a hasty redesign of the summit, which has since continued to evolve according to events. The decision of Finland and Sweden last May to ask to join NATO in the face of Russian expansionism and the blockade by Lithuania, one of the last Atlantic partners, of the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad in recent days, has redoubled the Kremlin’s threats to NATO itself and has caused that even the program of the meeting has been altered, for the umpteenth time, this Monday.
But in Moncloa, on the verge of Biden and the 40 delegations landing in Madrid, there is no concern about those last-minute changes to agendas and programs. In reality, in the Presidency there is only one fear, security, and one concern: the mobility problems that the great Atlantic event is going to generate. In the Government -they insisted this Monday- they are convinced that there will be no serious problem with logistics. The more than 50 million euros spent on the preparations entrusted to the most advanced companies guarantee success a priori.
The Government and NATO have been redesigning the summit since Putin invaded Ukraine in February
The review this Monday morning of the main stages of this event that will bring together 5,000 people (Ifema, Royal Palace, Prado Museum, Royal Theater and La Granja de San Idelfonso) did not detect any last-minute problems. The deployment of ‘Operation Eirene’ –explained those responsible for the Interior- was completed this Monday. The presence of the security forces (more than 10,000 officials only in the protection capsules) was already imposing this Monday, especially that of the 6,550 mobilized national police, especially riot police (UIP), canine guides and underground specialists.
The Madrid fairgrounds will be the most protected area on the planet for almost 48 hours. But extreme security extends much further. The CNP officials were already guarding this Monday the 40 luxury hotels where the delegations will stay and the main arteries through which the 80 delegations (40 delegates and the same number of companions) will ‘fly’ on their way to the summit or to the parallel events of this quote. The challenge of mobility, the Interior and Madrid City Council insist, will be “colossal”. Only Joe Biden’s caravan mobilizes 50 cars and only the US delegation has already assigned vehicles to move 1,200 people through Madrid.
The intelligence services have decided to leave the key rooms of Ifema without internet for fear of Russian cyberattacks
With this panorama, Interior is not going to walk with hot cloths: The busiest road axis in Spain (Prado-Recoletos-Castellana) will be closed whenever necessary. Like the A-2 to facilitate the entry of the delegations from Barajas and Torrejón and other main arteries, particularly the M-30 that bypasses the city.
Physical security is a priority. The other is cybersecurity. Finally, the Spanish and allied intelligence services have decided to leave the key rooms of Ifema and the telephones of the delegates who enter the ‘hot’ areas of the summit without any external access to the internet. The fear that hackers working for the Kremlin may attempt a “propagandistic” coup with an attack is “very real,” according to national security officials.
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