Eduardo González
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Arancha González Laya, and her Iraqi counterpart, Fuad Hussein, pledged yesterday to reactivate the Spanish-Iraqi Joint Commission, which has not met since 2013, and to resume “shortly” the official visit of the head of Spanish diplomacy to Baghdad, which was suspended last April because of COVID-19.
“Spain is a country committed to the advancement of democracy in Iraq and to the fight against terrorism, as demonstrated by the more than 5,000 Spanish military personnel present in recent years in Iraq to assist in the formation and training of the Iraqi Army to be able to fight Daesh in Iraq”, the Spanish minister said during the joint press conference after meeting with Hussein at the Viana Palace.
This commitment includes “Spain’s support for the holding of elections next October” and the “broadening of the range of our collaboration, especially in the economic field, in which there is much work to be done”, especially in “sectors of interest for the participation of Spanish companies, such as infrastructure, both water and transport or energy, health or agriculture”, she continued.
Besides, the two ministers committed themselves to advance in the concretion of a bilateral investment agreement and another bilateral agreement to avoid double taxation, “which will probably facilitate the presence of Spanish companies in Iraq”, and agreed to “start up the Joint Commission between both countries, which has not met in the last few years”. The last meeting of the Joint Commission (the twelfth) was held in September 2013 in Madrid, just ten years after the previous one, which took place in 2003, in the same year that saw the U.S.-led international invasion to overthrow Saddam Hussein’s regime. The thirteenth meeting of the Joint Commission has been a long time coming, despite the special interest shown by Baghdad to hold it in order to get the support of the Administration and Spanish companies for the reconstruction of the country.
González Laya also announced yesterday her intention to return “shortly” the official visit that she herself had planned to make last April to Baghdad and that was suspended at the last minute after a case of COVID-19 was detected in the Spanish delegation upon arrival in Kuwait, the first stage of that trip. “I hope to enjoy the hospitality of the Iraqis”, she said.
For his part, Fuad Hussein also stressed the need to make progress in economic relations in “many areas”, as well as to “reactivate the joint commission”, and assured that his government would be “very happy to receive the minister shortly”. Likewise, he expressed Iraq’s “gratitude to the Spanish Government and his Parliament for their support in the fight against Daesh”, because “terrorism is a threat to Iraqi society and to peace in the world”, and for “the role of the Spanish Armed Forces” in the training of Iraqi troops.
On the other hand, Hussein warned that, although Daesh “has already been dismantled in Iraq”, it is still “a terrorist organization with cells and bases in Iraq, Syria and in other countries, such as African countries or Afghanistan”. “In the past we managed to defeat ISIS and now we have to defeat ISIS again”, but “it cannot be limited to the military fight, we must fight against its ideology” and for this “we need Islamic countries and academics”, he stated.
Precisely, González Laya will participate this coming Monday in Rome in the meeting of foreign ministers of the coalition created in 2014 to fight Islamic State in Syria and Iraq. The meeting has been organized by Italy and the United States and the presence of the minister demonstrates Spain’s commitment “to fight against the terrorism represented by Daesh wherever it is present”, as she explained at the press conference.
