MADRID (Reuters) – Carrying the hammer and sickle flags of the previous Soviet Union, 1000’s protested in Madrid on Sunday against a NATO summit which can happen in the Spanish capital subsequent week.
Amid tight safety, leaders of the member international locations will meet in Madrid between 29-30 June because the organisation faces the unprecedented problem of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
NATO is predicted to think about the bid, opposed by alliance-member Turkey, for Finland and Sweden to affix.
The Nordic nations utilized in the wake of the Russian assault on Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin calls the conflict a particular army operation he says in half responds to the accession to NATO of different international locations close to post-Soviet Russia’s borders because the Nineties.
“Tanks sure, however of beer with tapas,” sang demonstrators, who claimed a rise in defence spending in Europe urged by NATO was a menace to peace.
“I’m fed up (with) this enterprise of arms and killing folks. The answer they suggest is extra arms and wars and we at all times pay for it. So, no NATO, no (military) bases, let the Americans go and go away us alone with out wars and weapons,” stated Concha Hoyos, a retired Madrid resident, informed Reuters.
Another protester, Jaled, 29, stated NATO was not the answer to the conflict in Ukraine.
Organisers claimed 5,000 folks joined the march, however authorities in Madrid put the quantity at 2,200.
Spain’s Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares stated in a newspaper interview revealed on Sunday that the summit would additionally deal with the menace from Europe’s southern flank in Africa, in which he stated Russia posed a menace to Europe.
“The overseas ministers’ dinner on the twenty ninth shall be centred on the southern flank,” he informed El Pais newspaper.
(Reporting by Graham Keeley, further reporting: Elena Rodriguez, Michael Gore, Nacho Doce; Editing by Frank Jack Daniel)
