Africa-Press – Gambia. While Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is certain to dominate an upcoming NATO summit in Madrid, the alliance’s new Strategic Concept — its main working document for the next decade — is having to contend with Russia and China’s growing influence in Africa.
As the host of the summit taking place from Tuesday to Thursday, Spain wants to emphasize its proximity to Africa as it lobbies for a greater focus on Europe’s southern flank in a new document outlining NATO’s vision of its security challenges and tasks.
Spain and other member nations are quietly pushing the Western alliance to consider how the likes of Russia’s Wagner mercenaries are spreading Kremlin’s influence to the continent, while China quietly strengthens its own presence.
The Strategic Concept is NATO’s most important document after the North Atlantic Treaty of 1949, which contained the key provision holding that an attack on one member is viewed as an attack upon all. The security assessment is updated roughly every decade to reset the West’s security agenda.
The current version, approved in Lisbon in 2010, stated the risk of a conventional war on NATO territory was “low.” It did not explicitly mention concerns about instability in Africa. At the time, the alliance viewed apathy as its biggest military threat. US complaints that some European members were not paying their due featured heavily in summit talks.
Fast forward a dozen years, and the view looks very different from NATO headquarters in Brussels. After Russia brought war close to the alliance’s eastern borders, NATO has worked to provide Ukraine with an assortment of more powerful weapons and to avoid the very real risk of getting drawn into the fighting.
But there appears to be a consensus among NATO members heading into the Madrid summit that while Russia remains concern No. 1, the alliance must continue to widen its view globally. Spain’s position for an increased focus on “the South” is shared by the UK, France and Italy.
In their view, the security challenges in Africa arise from Russian President Vladimir Putin apparently being dead-set on restoring the imperial glories of Russia as well as from an expansive China.
Russia has gained traction thanks to the presence of its mercenaries in the Sahel region, a semiarid expanse stretching from Senegal to Sudan that suffers from political strife, terrorism and drought.
“Each time I meet with NATO ministers, the support of the allies is total due to the instability that we see on the alliance’s southern frontier and especially the situation in the Sahel region right now,” Spanish Foreign Minister José Albares said.
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