MADRID — Spain will urge fellow NATO allies to consider a bigger role for the alliance in North Africa and the Sahel at a summit in Madrid on Thursday, with Spain’s foreign minister saying an intervention in Mali should not be ruled out. NATO’s 30 leaders held a final summit session, focused on the south, on Thursday morning, after almost two days of talks dominated by Russia’s war in Ukraine. “The Middle East, North Africa and the Sahara regions face interconnected security, demographic economic and political challenges, aggravated by the impact of climate change and food insecurity caused by Russia’s war on Ukraine,” he said. “The government is committed to raising our defence budget to close to 2% of GDP by 2029,” he told national TV station TVE. All NATO member countries committed in 2014 to move towards spending on defence the equivalent of 2% of GDP by 2024.

Source: The North Africa Journal June 30, 2022 23:14 UTC