Feijóo will offer Sánchez and other parties a Defense Pact stating that NATO will defend Ceuta and Melilla

Pons sees it as "a Toledo Pact" in defense and believes that closing it before the NATO Summit would portray Spain as a reliable partner

MADRID, 13 Jun. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The leader of the Popular Party, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, will offer the Government of Pedro Sánchez and the other political parties a Defense Pact in which he will ask NATO for a "guarantee" of protection of the entire territory, especially non-peninsular territories , such as the Canary Islands or the autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla.

This has been advanced by the PP's Deputy Secretary for Institutions, Esteban González Pons, who explained that this very week --less than two weeks before the NATO Summit in Madrid-- the PP will send a document to the rest of the parliamentary groups in the one that will propose that the defense policy "never be partisan or be at the mercy of whoever governs in Spain".

"We are going to offer a Toledo Pact on the security and defense of our country", he stated, adding that it is apolitical "it does not depend on the partners that one party or another may have in the Government" of Spain .

The PP MEP has specified that within the framework of this pact, the PP will ask NATO for a political declaration that "guarantees the protection of the entire national territory, in particular non-peninsular territories."

It is about, he continued, that this declaration -which should be signed at the same time as the new strategic concept- recognizes that "NATO protects the territorial integrity of all States and that this new strategic concept takes into account the southern border of the EU". "Whatever is the southern border of the European Union must be protected by NATO," she said.

He will also propose that NATO examine the collaboration that already exists in Asia Pacific and that it be explored in Latin America and, especially, in the Euro-Mediterranean area to strengthen relations with the countries of North Africa.

According to González Pons, NATO must strengthen its collaboration with the countries of North Africa and it must be Spain that "urges" the Atlantic Alliance to "reinforce the collaboration that it maintains with the countries of North Africa".

González Pons has also opted for a "bigger" NATO and has recalled that it is not only a military pact but also "a political pact", insofar as the Atlantic Alliance "does not defend countries but rather political principles such as democracy, division of powers, fundamental rights and public freedoms".

The leader of the PP has defended that this agreement between the groups be completed before the NATO Summit to be held in Madrid to "send the message to the world that Spain is a reliable partner". "We don't have a deadline, but it would be good and sensible for the prestige of Spain if we could offer that image of a country that has agreed on its national defense," he added.

González Pons has recognized that the document with this pact on defense and security "is almost finished" and has specified that the PP will make it public when it is sent to the Government and to the other political parties this week.

Finally, the person in charge of Institutional of the PP has indicated that the Popular Party supports that both Sweden and Finland "join" NATO at the Madrid Summit, "overcoming the Turkish veto".