UN’s headquarters in New York.
Eduardo González. Madrid
The Spanish Government has used the General Assembly of the United Nations to “sell” its arguments to enter the Security Council, a candidacy that is going through its final stage before the voting taking place next 16 October.
According to diplomatic sources, the Spanish candidacy hangs over the intense agenda of meetings, summits, conferences and bilateral meetings carried out these days by the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, José Manuel García-Margallo, because of the Ministerial Week of the General Assembly of the UN. The high point will come next Wednesday 24 September, when the King Felipe VI will be the fourth head of State to take part in the inauguration of the Assembly, right after Brazil (as usual), the United States (for the same reason) and Uganda (a country exercising the rotating presidency of the General Assembly).
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Permanent Mission of Spain before the UN have spread a leaflet and an explanatory pamphlet setting out the main Spanish arguments to access the highest governing body of the United Nations.
The leaflet, titled Dialogue, Solidarity, Compromise, includes the Ten aspects of a reliable partner, among them Spain’s commitment to “efficiently contribute to the maintenance of the international peace and security, the sustainable development and the defence and promotion of the human rights” and the bet on “conflict prevention, understanding between cultures, mediation, and non-proliferation and disarmament”.
The Government defends the image of a “meeting country between North and South and a bridge between East and West”
Spain’s “electoral programme” includes the defence of dialogue as a “priority” for the Spanish presence in the Security Council, it defends a “Council that is more efficient, transparent and united to the General Assembly” and the rest of the UN system and it commits to fight against terrorism and to give “voice to its victims”. In fact, as the document states, Spain was the first country to ratify the multilateral agreements of the UN against Terrorism and it has promoted the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy.
Spain has also committed to promote the agenda “post-2015” in the fight against poverty and in favour of sustainable development (remembering the 900 million euros provided to the Spain Fund-UNDP for the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals or the 1,000 million provided since 2008 to the Cooperation Fund for Water and Sanitation –FCAS in its Spanish acronym) and it has expressed its support to the human rights and equality (500 million euros allocated to this matter between 2004 and 2011) and the promotion of humanitarian assistance “wherever is necessary” (1,300 million euros to humanitarian action since 2007).
The document includes many data on Spain’s involvement in the peace and security work of the United Nations, as well as on the 138,500 forces that have participated in peace operations since 1989 and the intervention in 28 peace missions of the UN, 19 of the EU and six of the NATO. Besides, according to the leaflet, Spain has invested 25 million euros in the UN Support Base in Quart de Poblet, which provides safe communications to 100,000 people. The Government has also highlighted the condition of member of the Group of Friends of Mediation and co-promoter of the initiative for the mediation in the Mediterranean, as well as promoter of the Alliance of Civilizations.
“We will be loyal to our history as a meeting country between the North and the South, a bridge between the East and the West, respecting tradition and committing to modernity”, the Spanish Government states in its leaflet.