Robles protests against NATO for excluding Spanish industry and threatens to block production plan if it does not rectify

BRUSSELS, June 15 (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Defense Minister, Margarita Robles, expressed her protest to NATO on Thursday for excluding the Spanish industry from the meeting with representatives of the sector to discuss the increase in arms production, going so far as to threaten to block the approval of the action plan for defense production, which will be ratified by the allied leaders at the Vilnius summit in July.

Speaking from the NATO headquarters in Brussels, where the allied defense ministers meet, Robles has defended the sit-in at the meeting in response to the exclusion of Spanish companies. "It is evident that Spain has to be there, a Spanish company must be represented because the Spanish defense industry is very good, it creates a lot of innovation and technology and many jobs," he underlined, who held a meeting with Jens Stoltenberg to convey your complaint.

For all these reasons, the minister has redoubled the pulse within the Alliance and has assured that Spain is going to "veto" the NATO defense production action plan "until the presence of Spanish armories is reconsidered".

"We understand that it has to continue to be elaborated and it cannot be considered approved until it is more precise," he assured about the plan with which NATO hopes to increase the production of weapons to face the reduction of its arsenals with the war in Ukraine. .

"Spain's position is clear, anything that is done in NATO regarding the defense industry has to count on Spain," he stated, threatening to block the adoption of the initiative.

In any case, this Thursday's meeting in Brussels is "a first contact meeting" between public representatives and the Defense industry "to see what the future of the industry's position is," Robles has defended, indicating that At the moment, the absence of Spain has no implications because the meeting is informal and therefore "no planning or action" will result from it, although in the eyes of Madrid it represents a precedent that it considers a bad starting point.