NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has made official the appointment of Spaniard Javier Colomina as Special Representative for the Alliance's southern flank. Colomina is Deputy Assistant Secretary General for Political Affairs and Security Policy and has served as NATO Secretary General's Special Representative for the Caucasus and Central Asia. Stoltenberg, on the sidelines of the summit in Washington, commented, “The Middle East, North Africa and the Sahel regions are important to our Alliance. Javier Colomina has extensive experience in dealing with NATO partners. His appointment will further strengthen the Alliance's important work in the South”. As Special Representative for the Southern Front, Colomina will serve as NATO's focal point for the region. “At the Washington summit,” reads a note, ”the allies agreed on an action plan that will increase NATO's engagement in the Middle East, North Africa and Sahel regions. The appointment of the Special Representative is part of that plan”. “Honored to be appointed as the first Special Representative of the Secretary General of NATO for the southern flank,” Colomina himself writes on X. There are controversies on the Italian side, reiterated by Defense Minister Guido Crosetto on the sidelines of his speech at the Italian Embassy in London: “Stoltenberg is a person with whom I have collaborated seriously for two years, very friendly, so I to a friend when I think he is doing something wrong I tell him. There is little to clarify, the decision has been made, I did not share the appointment of that decision and I told him explicitly”.
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