The Spanish Foreign Ministry did not allow Russian warships to park in the port of Ceuta on the northern coast of Africa, the Pais newspaper reports.
According to the publication, the Russian side requested permission to park in Ceuta from August 18 to 20 for the large anti-submarine ship "Vice Admiral Kulakov" and the tug "Altai".
It is noted that the Spanish Defense Ministry did not see any obstacles to issuing a permit, but the country's Foreign Ministry additionally asked Moscow about the ultimate goal of the campaign. The publication believes that the ministry thus wanted to avoid any conflict situation related to the route of Russian ships. Without receiving a response, the Spanish Foreign Ministry rejected the application, the newspaper writes.
The article talks about the political nature of this decision, which was primarily influenced by the position of Madrid as the future organizer of the NATO summit in the spring of 2022.
At the beginning of 2017, Spain did not allow a Russian aircraft carrier group headed by the heavy aircraft carrier cruiser Admiral Kuznetsov, which was en route to Syria, to enter Ceuta. Then, according to the Russian Defense Ministry, the Spanish side made it clear that due to pressure on it from the United States and NATO, the entry of Russian ships into Ceuta is impractical, writes Eadaily.
