The Diplomat in Spain

The Non-Aligned Movement is formed by 120 members and 21 countries with observer status.

Luis Ayllón. Madrid

In his campaign to get as many votes as possible for Spain’s candidacy to the UN Security Council for the two-year period of 2015-2016, the minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel García-Margallo, has not hesitated to attend a meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement, to which countries such as Egypt, Iran, Pakistan, Venezuela, Cuba, Belorussia, the most of the African States and many from Asia and Latin America belong.

The cabinet meeting will take place this week in Algiers and García-Margallo will be present as a guest the day 28. According to information provided to The Diplomat, one of the main reasons why the minister has decided to attend the event is the possibility of maintaining bilateral contacts with colleagues from those countries to explain the goodness of the Spanish candidacy in the UN.

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The minister of Foreign Affairs intensifies his campaign to take Spain to the Security Council

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Not long ago, García-Margallo participated in Guyana in a meeting of Caricom, grouping countries of the Caribbean. There he announced the donation of 1.3 million euros to the States making up that community. Besides, he met some of them in order to ask them for their vote for Spain.

He had been in New York few days before that, where he attended informative meetings with representatives from the groups of African and Asian countries, as well as of small islands and small states.

Before that, in January, the minister attended the African Union Summit in Addis Ababa, where he could meet quite a few of the leaders of the fifty participating countries.

Spain aims to get one of the positions of the Western Group of the UN Security Council for the two-year period of 2015-2016, competing with New Zealand and Turkey. The voting will take place in October during the General Assembly of the UN, where the votes of each of the 193 members have the same value.