Expand Nato role in North Africa and Sahel, urges Spain

SPAIN urged fellow Nato allies to consider a bigger role for the alliance in North Africa and the Sahel at a summit in Madrid yesterday, with Spain’s foreign minister saying an intervention in Mali should not be ruled out.

Nato has little appetite for such steps, diplomats say, but as it undertakes the largest scaling-up of its defences since the Cold War to the east, allies such as Spain and Italy worry threats on the southern border risk being ignored.

Nato’s 30 leaders held a final summit session, focused on the south, yesterday, after almost two days of talks dominated by Russia’s war in Ukraine. As the group gathered for the early session, Nato secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg said the focus would be addressing challenges, including the causes of instability and “stepping up” the fight against terrorism.

“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.

Spain’s Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said he did not rule out a Nato intervention in Mali if needed, after the summit statement cited terrorism among the “hybrid threats” that hostile powers could use to undermine its stability.

Western powers are concerned about a spike in violence in Mali, where the country’s ruling military junta, backed by Russian private military contractor Wagner Group, is battling an Islamist insurgency that spills into neighbouring countries in the African region known as the Sahel.

France, whose military policy has long been focused on Nato’s south, said in February that it would pull out 2 400 troops first deployed to Mali almost a decade ago, after relations with the junta turned sour.

In January 2020, then US president Donald Trump tried to expand Nato to include Middle Eastern nations, arguing that European armies should do more to fight Islamist militants. The proposal did not gain support.

At Spain’s urging, with support from Italy, Nato’s new, 10-year master document, the “strategic concept” also cites terrorism and migration for monitoring, and points to the southern flank as a new source of risk to stability.