The King visits NATO missions on the flank is 15 days from a key summit of the Alliance in The Hague | Spain

For the second consecutive year, Felipe VI Put the military uniform abroad again. The king travels this Tuesday and Wednesday to Romania and Slovakia to visit the outstanding Spanish troops in eastern Europe as part of the effort of the NATO To reinforce deterrence in a High voltage zone with Russia. With his visit, the king underlines the country’s commitment to the Atlantic Alliance just 15 days after the NATO Summit in The Hague (Netherlands), where Spain will have to defend a Increase in defense expenditure until 2% of GDP reaches this year against the claims of the United States, which already They ask for a disbursement of up to 5% of GDPa threshold Inasumible For the Government of Pedro Sánchez.

The east, like the north, has become a hot point for the security and defense of Europe and the Atlantic Alliance. And Spain, as a member of NATO, Participate in several deterrent missions in this flank. « (The presence in Romania) represents an important commitment from the allies and is a tangible reminder that an attack against an NATO ally is an attack against all, » warns the General Staff of the Defense (EMAD) in reference, although without naming it, to a potential aggression of Moscow.

Felipe VI, accompanied by the Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, and of the Chief of the General Staff of the Defense (Jemad), Admiral Teodoro López Calderón, will meet on Tuesday first thing with the newly elected president of Romania, Nicusor Dan, in Cincu, in the center of the country. There he will visit the 200 Marine Infants who have been destined there since October 2024 doing deterrent in eight multinational battle groups. Belgium, Luxembourg, Macedonia del Norte, Poland, Portugal and the United States are the countries that integrate these groups under French leadership and that have the ability to deploy in conflict zone in a few days. In the afternoon, Felipe VI will fly to Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia, where he will maintain a gala dinner with its president, Peter Pellegrini.

The next day, Wednesday, showing again of his status as a supreme chief of the Armed Forces, Felipe VI will emphasize the Army uniform to visit the 1,505 Spaniards deployed right now in Lešť (Slovakia). That amount represents « the bulk » of the contingent of the Galicia VII Brigade (Brilat). It is, according to the EMAD, the greatest deployment of Spanish personnel in an international mission to date and there, Felipe VI will witness an exercise in which, under Spanish leadership, contingents of Slovakia, Slovenia, Portugal, Romania, Croatia, Czech Republic and Türkiye participate. In this exercise, the battle group to Brigade will be put into practice, one of the new capabilities that NATO wants to show off.

These are maneuvers –Strong Lineage 25– That they intend to demonstrate NATO’s ability to deploy and coordinate forces quickly, effectively and reliable on their east flank. And check if the contingents highlighted there are able to organize to form a brigade in up to ten days. In the Spanish case, there will be about 1,505 soldiers, two Tigres helicopters, one NH90 and two Chinook. The latter will return to Spain after maneuvers.

Lebanon, Iraq and Baltic Republics

Since he was proclaimed King on June 19, 2014, Felipe VI has visited the Spanish troops outstanding abroad on rare. The first went to the Miguel de Cervantes base, in 2015, in the town of Marjayún (Lebanon), where 650 Spanish soldiers contribute to the establishment of peace in a United Nations mission. The next was four years later, in 2019, when Felipe VI visited by surprise the day he turned 51 years old to the outstanding Spaniards in Iraq under the umbrella of the NATO mission that he intended to end the Islamic State (ISIS).

It was not until last year when the uniform was raised again when visited the towns affected by the Dana last November– From Chief of the Armed Forces to visit their soldiers in the Baltic Republics. Felipe VI visited Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania on a lightning tripEast border countries to which Romania and Slovakia are now added.