The Diplomat
The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, will make official visits to Angola and Senegal between April 7 and 9, according to government sources.
The first stage of the African tour will be Angola, with which Sanchez will be able to resume the trip that the previous President of Government, Mariano Rajoy, was going to make just three years ago in response to an invitation from President Joao Lourenço. That visit, scheduled for March 25 and 26, 2018, was canceled by Rajoy almost at the last minute in order to be able to follow the situation in Catalonia from Spain, following the convening of the plenary session of the Catalan Parliament to invest Junts per Catalunya deputy Jordi Turull as president of the Generalitat (an investiture that was finally rejected).
Spain is the only major EU country that Joao Lourenço, who during his inauguration in 2017 mentioned his desire to intensify relations with Spain (among other countries) and invited Spanish investors to participate in his government’s process of economic diversification and privatizations, has not yet officially visited. No Spanish President of Government has ever visited Angola, a country with which Spain has maintained diplomatic relations since 1977.
Pedro Sanchez’s visit to Angola will have a clear economic character because of the Government’s interest in intensifying investments. The bilateral trade balance between Spain and Angola shows, since 2004, a trade deficit for our country due to purchases of Angolan crude oil. Angola is an important market for Spain within Sub-Saharan Africa, since in 2017 it was the fourth supplier to Spain after Morocco, Algeria and Nigeria and the third client after Morocco and Algeria.
The second leg of Pedro Sánchez’s African tour will be Senegal, where he will address the issue of irregular migration with the President of the Republic, Macky Sall. The last official visit of a Spanish chief executive to this country was made by Mariano Rajoy in May 2015.
Last November, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Arancha González Laya, warned during her official visit to Dakar (where she was also received by President Sall and met with her Senegalese counterpart, Aissata Tall Sall) that “whoever uses illegal channels” to enter Spain “will have to return to their country”. “The doors of Spain will be open for Senegalese who want to migrate to Spain in a legal and orderly manner”, she added.
