Morocco Tests a Missile 200 km from the Canary Islands, Madrid Pressed to Explain
Military tests conducted by Morocco and the United States in Tan-Tan have crossed into the political sphere. A Canary Islands lawmaker is now demanding explanations from the Spanish government and wants to know why the archipelago was not informed in advance.
Cristina Valido, a Coalición Canaria lawmaker in the Spanish Congress, has submitted written questions to the Ministries of Defense and Foreign Affairs. In a statement published by her party, she is demanding information about the new African Multidomain Training and Experimentation Center (AMTEC), established in Tan-Tan by Morocco and the United States.
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The center is located just over 200 kilometers from Lanzarote. Between August 3 and 7, it hosted its first live-fire demonstration. As Bladi reported, a long-range cruise missile was notably tested there as part of military cooperation between the Royal Armed Forces and the United States.
Madrid pressed to say what it knew
For Cristina Valido, this proximity to the Canary Islands justifies informing the archipelago’s authorities sufficiently in advance of this type of operation. The lawmaker is therefore asking Madrid what information it had about AMTEC becoming operational and what it had conveyed to the Canarian government.
She also wants to know how the Spanish executive assessed the center’s possible consequences for the security of the archipelago. If Madrid does not have sufficient information, the lawmaker is calling for a mechanism to be established allowing Spain to be notified before future military tests organized so close to its territory.
A final question directly concerns relations with Rabat: Cristina Valido is asking what contacts the Spanish government has had with Morocco on this matter. Coalición Canaria points out that this is not the first time Moroccan military activities near the islands have raised questions about the level of information available to the Canarian authorities.
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The affair thus gives AMTEC a Spanish political dimension, as Washington and Rabat present it as a future regional center intended to test new military technologies. Just days after its first live-fire exercise, this new Moroccan-American testing ground is now forcing Madrid to explain itself before Parliament.
