The acting Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, has closed the XXXI International Seminar on Security and Defense that is organized annually by the Association of European Journalists (APE) with the collaboration of the Ministry of Defense.
During her speech, the acting minister insisted that "we must bet on security and defense policies because they allow the consolidation of rights and freedoms in the world." In this sense, he has called for security and defense policies to be considered and respected as State policies by all political forces. And he stressed that "without security and defense there are no freedoms, there is no democracy, there is no economic stability, there is no growth, there is no R + D + i and technology".
"There are matters such as security and defense that can not be matters of political confrontation," said Robles, who has ensured that all parties must be "united" in matters of security and defense and supporting "a government that meets your obligations and your commitments. "
Margarita Robles has also highlighted the strong and solid commitment of Spain with the European Union and the NATO, besides praising the effort that is made from European Union institutions to avoid unnecessary tensions with the Atlantic Alliance. A commitment that is fulfilled with the more than 3,000 soldiers deployed in peace missions abroad or with the implementation of the agreement of UN Resolution 1325 so that women in conflict places are mediators in the solution of them.
The Acting Minister of Defense has reserved her last words at the close of this ceremony to thank the 120,000 members of the Armed Forces for the silent and daily effort they make to guarantee Security and Defense within Spain and beyond their borders. "They are modern Armed Forces, well trained and a reference in the European Union and in NATO," he stressed.
Development of the Seminar
Ministry of DefenceThe history of this Seminar organized by the APE, whose president is the journalist Diego Carcedo, goes back to 1983, date in which its first edition was celebrated. Since its inception, in addition to numerous military topics of current news, the transatlantic link has been very present in most of its editions as in this year, which is the central argument of it.
Under the title "NATO the dizziness of the American withdrawal" several conferences have been organized that have taken place during yesterday and today at the Toledo tourism inn. The objective of this Seminar is to analyze the current situation of the Washington Treaty as well as its perspectives.
Seventy years have passed since the signing of the Treaty, by which NATO was created, and twenty years after the incorporation into Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic, from the extinct Warsaw Pact, rival of NATO during the Cold War.
In the different conferences held between yesterday and today, the Seminar has had speakers of the greatest informative interest, such as the one who was secretary general of NATO between 1995 and 1999, Javier Solana, the diplomat and former representative of Spain before the Council Security Council, Inocencio Arias, or the current director of the National Intelligence Center (CNI), Felix Sanz.
The Ministry of Defense, meanwhile, has been represented by the Secretary General of Defense Policy, Admiral Martínez Núñez, the Director of Defense Policy, Elena Gómez de Castro and Margarita Robles herself, who has been in charge of closing the Seminar.