“We cannot accept Threats and insults from Russia Against the high representative of the European Union. “While Russia insults you, it insults us Europeans,” he said. Secretary of Defence, Margarita Robles at the beginning of her speech to the press at SATCEN, the EU satellite coordination center at Torrejón de Ardoz airbase.
staging a message union with Josep Borrell Robles kicks off a busy week defense diplomacy, Agreement providing for the meeting of Spain during the presidency of the Council of Europe Informal meeting of defense ministersa – between this Tuesday and Wednesday – it will precede another foreign headline scheduled for the 31st.
Borrell co-chairs both events. Minister Robles disputed the charges made a week ago. Unofficial television spokesperson of Vladimir Putinn, midnight television missionary Vladimir SolovyovThe person who called Borrell “stupid” on the air on August 20, “enemy of the Slavs” “despicable” and “devil’s egg”. A social gathering on the same TV show,He accused Spain of being a “colonial country”to wear the “crown of evil in the world”.
“Eyes in Space”
The gravity of the war in Ukraine marked the beginning of the informal summit, which took place in the city of Toledo, the main meeting place, on Tuesday afternoon.
Eighteen ministers and nine ministry representatives from the Defense portfolios of EU governments sat at the second SATCEN board meeting.
The location chosen by Defense for this start is a key point in the European Defense strategy. Posted on Tuesday to the same building where Defense headlines came from one of the envelopes containing explosives On December 1, 2022, a wave of intimidation against key organizations in Spain’s support for Ukraine was finally revealed to be the work of a retiree.
Of course, SATCEN provides intelligence service to Ukrainian forces He defended against the Russian invasion many times. Before the press, Borrell described one of the most striking events: the extent of the flooding around the Zaporiya nuclear power plant during the blow up of the Kajovka dam.
He also gave another example: Satcen satellites were very useful in the recent past. Evacuation of Europeans from Khartoum, Sudan.
Monitoring military threats, organized crime, terrorism or environmental disasters is the job of a center that Borrell wants to underline the moniker “Europe’s eyes in space”. SATCEN for 20 years, two-thirds of its history, European Geospatial Intelligence Agency. Its operational command corresponds to the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Joint Security.
Also the Sahel
Despite the politico-military nature of this strategic region based in Spain, most of the images used and interpreted by this organization were produced by commercial satellites, as this newspaper says, 86% of them are European. Before Robles spoke, Josep Borrell underlined SATCEN Provides “important information” average speed in the government’s decision-making process 5,000 reports per year.
The ministers sat in a square, in a room decorated with paintings of large photographs taken by the SATCEN satellites. Among them is one that the Catalan European Commissioner noticed on his way to the podium. The photo shows a place in the middle of the desert. plutonium processing plant those watching these “eyes in space”.
It was Minister Robles’ turn to speak: “The European Union, Keep supporting UkraineBecause to support Ukraine is to support world peace, the values that democracy represents, freedom and security”.
But in Toledo, they too will be facing south from the cigar dinner for ministers this Tuesday. “It will be evaluated very carefully” current situation in the Sahel”, Robles warned. He said that this issue will also be on the agenda of the foreign ministers meeting to be held next Thursday.