Robles delegates two soldiers to the meeting of ministers on arms shipments to Ukraine

The meeting will be headed by the US Secretary of Defense in the middle of a debate on sending battle tanks

MADRID, 18 Ene. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Defense Minister, Margarita Robles, will not participate in the international meeting that is being held this week in Germany to analyze shipments of military material to Ukraine and will delegate two senior military officials from her Department.

As confirmed by sources from the Ministry to Europa Press, the representatives of Spain at this meeting of member countries of NATO and the European Union will be the Director General of Defense Policy, Lieutenant General Fernando López del Pozo, and the Head of State Joint Chief of Defense (JEMACON), Lieutenant General Fernando García González-Valerio.

Robles, for his part, will participate on Thursday in the Spanish-French Summit that is being held in Barcelona and on Friday he will visit the second group of Ukrainians who are receiving military training in Spain in Toledo.

The Ramstein meeting, in Germany, takes place in the midst of a debate on the sending of battle tanks to Ukraine, which the Government of Volodimir Zelensky claims to continue the fighting against Russia in the Donbas region. The meeting, which will be headed by the new German Defense Minister, Boris Pistorius, is expected to be attended by the US Defense Secretary, Lloyd Austin, among others.

Germany, the manufacturer of these tanks, has to authorize the shipment to a third country, an issue that has generated internal tensions in the country about the advisability of taking the step and also with European partners such as Poland, which demand decisive action from Berlin to stop the Russian troops and that they have already announced their decision to send these armored vehicles to Ukraine.

This Tuesday, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, assured that this option "is not on the table" for Spain, although he referred to the meeting this Friday in which the defense ministers of the military contact group for Ukraine will participate. .

"The way in which Spain is behaving in this war is in each phase we do what we think is best to help Ukrainians defend their sovereignty and territorial integrity and bring peace to the country as quickly as possible," Albares said.

The Government did open the door last year to the shipment of 'Leopard' battle tanks. However, the option was discarded in August, alleging that the vehicles that were stored in Zaragoza were in a "regrettable" state and their rehabilitation was not possible.