Eduardo González
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Arancha González Laya, will tour Kuwait and Iraq from today until Tuesday as part of her department’s strategy to “recover Spain’s space” in the Middle East, whose first step was the tour carried out last January in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.
The official visit begins today in Kuwait, in what will be the first trip of a Spanish Foreign Minister as head of delegation to the Emirate since the one made by Ana Palacio in 2003. González Laya will be received by the country’s highest authorities, including Emir Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, Crown Prince Sheikh Mishal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah Al Khaled Al Hamad Al Sabah, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sheikh Ahmad Nasser Mohammad Al Sabah, with whom she will address the development of the potential of bilateral relations and a new memorandum of understanding will be signed to systematize political consultations, diplomatic sources said.
On the economic front, the minister will meet with the director general of Kuwait’s sovereign wealth fund, KIO, Farouq Bastaki, whom she will try to convince of the investment possibilities opened up by the Recovery Plan after COVID-19, as she did during her trips to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.
González Laya is accompanied by several Spanish businessmen. There is already a strong Spanish business presence in Kuwait, both in traditional sectors and in other more innovative ones, such as renewable energies. In fact, two Spanish companies, Elecnor and TSK, have been awarded the only renewable energy projects in the Emirate. The visit includes a meeting with the director of the Kuwait Institute Research, Samira Omar, to promote scientific cooperation, and a visit to the Spanish military deployed at Camp Arifjan, a rear logistics base of the international coalition against Daesh in Iraq.
Precisely, González Laya will leave tomorrow, Monday, for Iraq, a country that was previously visited by then Minister José Manuel García-Margallo in 2016. In Baghdad, the minister will be received by the President of Iraq, Barham Salih, the Prime Minister, Mustafa Al-Kadhimi, and his Iraqi counterpart, Fuad Muhammed Hussien, with whom she will talk about the need to strengthen political dialogue and bilateral relations after a stage dominated by security and military operations and about boosting economic and trade relations.
Likewise, according to the aforementioned sources, the minister will convey Spain’s support to the political process initiated by the Al-Kadhimi government, which should lead to general elections next October that will serve to put an end to the crisis generated by the popular mobilizations of October 2019 and by the strong repression exercised by the militias against the demonstrators. Gonzalez Laya will also meet with the head of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq, Jeanine Antoinette Plasschaert, and on Tuesday he will travel to Erbil, capital of Kurdistan, where he will meet with regional authorities, with the Spanish military stationed at the base in this city, with representatives of civil society and with Spanish UN and NGO aid workers operating in the area.
