The Maritime Action Vessel ‘Meteoro’ departs today from Cartagena to the Black Sea
Spain has offered NATO the deployment of Air Force fighters for the first time in Bulgaria as part of the surveillance mission of its airspace along the border with Russia, just as it has done in the Baltic countries since 2015 and made in Romania in 2021. The offer was made at the end of December to those responsible for the Atlantic Alliance and confirmed yesterday by the Defense Minister, Margarita Robles, in the face of the worsening of the Russian-Ukrainian crisis. NATO adopted the Enhanced Air Surveillance mission in 2014 following Russia’s annexation of Crimea with the aim of “demonstrating the resolve of allies, demonstrating NATO’s defensive nature and deterring Russia from aggression or threat of aggression against the allies.
Spain periodically participates in this operation as part of the aerial surveillance of the Baltic sky from bases in Lithuania or Estonia. These are periods of three months once a year, in which Eurofighter fighters are deployed for surveillance and airspace control tasks and to carry out rapid reaction alert missions.
But, in addition to the Baltic countries, the Atlantic Alliance decided to reinforce these security measures in two areas of action: in the north and in the south. On the southern border with Russia, allied forces in Romania and Bulgaria are busy temporarily reinforcing their national aerial surveillance capabilities. It is within this framework that Spain deployed for the first time in Romania last year (six fighters at the Constanza base) and is now studying the possibility of doing so for a period of two months in Bulgaria.
Yesterday, Minister Robles also announced that Spain is bringing forward the planned shipment of the ‘Blas de Lezo’ frigate as part of a NATO mission to next week.
The Maritime Action Ship (BAM) ‘Meteoro’ will leave today from Cartagena to the Black Sea to lead one of the permanent NATO missions that are carried out after the annexation of Crimea and the Russian intention to occupy the eastern shore from the Sea of Azov. Margarita Robles herself will be present in the port city to supervise the first maneuvers of the new submarine S-81 ‘Isaac Peral’.
The ‘Meteoro’, commanded by Captain Javier Núñez de Prado, will host the international staff of NATO’s Force 2.
350 soldiers in Latvia
According to Robles, Spain already participates in NATO as a “serious ally”, as evidenced by the deployment it maintains with more than 350 soldiers from the Army in Latvia, in addition to the role of the Spanish ‘eurofighters’ to monitor the Baltic.
“The position of Spain, as of NATO as a whole, is that the response be diplomatic and there is a de-escalation” with Russia, said Robles, who insisted that the position of all countries is clear: “Moscow cannot tell Russia no country what it has to do.
.