The Spanish Government's delegate in the Balearics, Alfonso Rodríguez, has responded to the suggestion that Mallorca and the Balearics are undergoing a process of militarisation by saying that the planned weapons' storage facility at the Son Sant Joan air base is a "common infrastructure" of a kind that exists elsewhere.
"Son Sant Joan is also a military base, a strategic defence zone, and what that warehouse is expected to contain, an explosives magazine or whatever you want to call it, is within the realm of normal defence facilities. We didn't have one here. The base could be an ideal place to build a station to guarantee storage."
Following shortly after the visit by the world's largest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, the ministry of defence's announcement has fuelled speculation of a militarisation process. The Son Sant Joan facility will be for both the Spanish armed forces and NATO, but military sources reject talk of militarisation. Spain is a member of NATO and the European Union, and it's logical that, at specific times, some aspects will be strengthened or infrastructure modernised.
It's acknowledged, nevertheless, that everything changed after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. During the Cold War, NATO recognised the strategic value of the Balearics. The collapse of the former Soviet Union lessened this value, but the situation in the Middle East as well as in Ukraine has once more brought it to the fore. Mallorca could play a key role in military logistics.
"It is evident that in the current international geopolitical situation, Mallorca and the Balearic Islands are gaining weight in NATO and in Europe, specifically in the Mediterranean," says one source.