The Diplomat
On March 17, the agreement between Spain and New Zealand on the protection of classified information in the field of defense came into force.
Under the agreement, the two countries undertake to regulate the exchange of classified information in defense matters and to protect the information exchanged or generated in application of the agreement. The competent authorities for the implementation of the agreement are, on the part of Spain, the Secretary of State Director of the National Intelligence Center and the National Security Office and, on the part of New Zealand, the Director General of the Security Intelligence Service, as published in the Official State Gazette (BOE) on March 31.
The Council of Ministers authorized the signing of the agreement in December 2016, but that text was never signed because New Zealand reopened the negotiation to introduce a series of modifications. Following the restart of the procedure and the negotiation of a new agreement, the final text was signed in Madrid on December 16, 2019, after authorization by the Council of Ministers in March 2019. The agreement was approved by the Government and forwarded to Parliament in July 2020 and was authorized by the two Chambers between September and November.
Spain’s international relations, as reported by the Council of Ministers after the approval of the agreement, “sometimes require the exchange of information that, because it affects security or national interests, must hold a degree of classification and be subject to special processes of use and handling to preserve that integrity”.
In particular, in the field of the defense and armaments industry, manufacturing, assembly or supply contracts often involve the sharing of confidential devices or procedures, making it necessary to establish rules under which States can safely share such classified information. For this reason, this agreement constitutes “an essential legal instrument that will favor the development of the Spanish defense industry and bilateral commercial exchanges in this sector, currently reduced”, and its ratification contributes “to the preservation of Spain’s interests in its international relations”.
