00:00And earlier I spoke to Anna Palastriou, who is the former Spanish foreign minister.
00:05Europe depends on import of energy. Europe is a net importer of energy.
00:12Having said that, the energy mix is not the same in the different European Union countries.
00:19This is where we have to go forward in uniting.
00:23Spain has a mix that is particularly, I would say, prepared for this kind of shocks,
00:30as we have a lot of renewables, wind and solar.
00:34And yes, the other source of energy for Spain is gas and important LNG, liquefied gas.
00:44But it's not that dependent on fuel.
00:49Well, Spain is out of coal.
00:53So, in a way, we are among the best prepared in the European Union.
00:59How about other countries?
01:01Because Spain is quite strong in renewables, but not every country in Europe has the luxury.
01:04No, not every country is as strong in renewables.
01:08As I say, this is one of these contradictions in the treaty of the European Union is that energy mix
01:16depends on the member states.
01:19And on the contrary, sustainability is communitarized, depends on Brussels.
01:25So, this creates difficulties that we are trying to overcome.
01:30And Spain has taken one of the strongest anti-war positions in Europe.
01:34The Prime Minister condemned the conflict as a violation of international law and resisted calls to raise military spending to
01:41NATO's proposed 5% of GDP.
01:43So, is this a principal defense of international law or strategic positioning?
01:50You should ask Prime Minister Sanchez.
01:53I think that, as always, in politics, there is everything in it.
01:58No politician will forget that he or she is facing elections soon.
02:05No politician will forget that he or she is in a very weak coalition.
02:12And any decision has to be read in these terms.
02:18Apparently, the EU countries appear divided in this case.
02:21Some are backing the United States, while others, including Spain, are avoiding direct military involvement.
02:27And President Trump has voiced frustration, of course.
02:29So, what does this mean for the future cohesion of NATO?
02:34Well, there you have a good question, Mark.
02:38I'm an optimist.
02:40I hope that we will find a solution.
02:44What we have to remind the United States is that President Trump has made one of the clear messages is
02:56that he didn't acknowledge any value in the term or in the concept of allies.
03:03And we have to remind him and remind the United States that alliances is a two-way street.
03:13You said President Trump doesn't value the concept, the idea of allies.
03:17And you have also penned an article saying that the United States is shifting away from a rules-based framework
03:23towards what you say, transactional approach to foreign policy.
03:28Can you just elaborate on that?
03:30Well, transactional approach is that today the negotiations are conducted by the United States, not by the government of the
03:41United States, not by state, not by defense department.
03:45No, they are conducted by a group of friends of President Trump.
03:50And this group is a group of businessmen that they are used to just buying, selling.
04:00Diplomacy is more than that.
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