Meet the US military presence and NATO in Spain – Telesur TV

US President Barack Obama official visit to Spain this 9 and July 10, after attending the NATO summit to be held in Warsaw (Poland).

Obama will meet with King Philip VI and President of the caretaker government, Mariano Rajoy, and visit one of the two Spanish bases with US military presence: Rota (Cadiz) or Moron de la Frontera (In sevilla).

The US military presence in Spain

In Spain four military bases use settled together with the United States since the September 26, 1953 under the bilateral Agreement on Defence Pact of Madrid, which was signed by General Francisco Franco and US President Dwight Eisenhower.

This is the air bases of Moron, Zaragoza and Torrejón and Rota Naval.

United States invested $ 524 million for the modernization of national military forces and change Spain hosted for decades US military in its territory.

However, there was a significant reduction the US military presence who managed the government headed by Felipe González and for 1992 the troops of the US Air Force left Torrejon and Zaragoza.

Currently, Spain and the United States share two military bases, Rota (Cádiz) and Moron (Sevilla). Both facilities are exceptionally important for Washington because of its strategic position on the Atlantic route to the Middle East.

The NATO bases in Spain

The base of Rota, in Cádiz , has since 2015 with four US destroyers that make up the naval component of the NATO missile shield which, among other countries involving Poland, Romania, Turkey and the Netherlands, hosting on its territory US facilities.

The agreements signed by the former president of the Spanish government, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero and US President Barak Obama, allow the movement of US destroyers in the Mediterranean.

In the Seville base in Moron de la Frontera hosts Force Crisis Response Marine Corps, ready to intervene at any time in Africa and the Mediterranean, with a 2 000 permanent presence of 200 soldiers and 26 aircraft.

This base has been a key point in the last 20 years operations ” humanitarian aid ” in Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq.

In April 2013 the Spanish Council of Ministers authorized the deployment of 500 US Marines base in Moron, linking the crisis in Africa.