The Diplomat
The Rota and Morón de la Frontera bases will temporarily host Afghan collaborators of the United States in transit to other destinations, according to a telephone conversation between the President of the United States, Joe Biden, and the head of the Spanish Executive, Pedro Sánchez, yesterday.
The telephone conversation, which lasted around 25 minutes, according to information provided by Moncloa, is the first between Sánchez and Biden since the latter arrived at the White House seven months ago and joins the brief contact they had at the NATO summit last July.
Yesterday, the two leaders shared their concern for the situation in Afghanistan and agreed, reports the Presidency of the Government, on “the need for the international community to act in a coordinated and supportive manner, especially to facilitate evacuation and repatriation operations”.
Sánchez told Biden that Spain continues to work “closely” with its international allies in the evacuation of the most “vulnerable” Afghans, and informed him of the mechanism that Spain has put in place to act as a ‘hub’ for the European External Action Service, taking in citizens of Afghanistan who have collaborated with the European Union and other personnel who have been in the service of European institutions until they can be transferred to other EU countries.
Moncloa reported that Sánchez and Biden reaffirmed their willingness to “continue to cooperate closely in order to continue facilitating evacuation operations from Afghanistan”, and stressed that proof of this “excellent collaboration” is that yesterday, 64 Afghan evacuees collaborating with the United States flew on the third Spanish plane to arrive in Torrejón from Afghanistan.
Sánchez also agreed with Biden that the bases at Morón de la Frontera and Rota, where there are important US military contingents, should temporarily house Afghans collaborating with the United States who are evacuated from Afghanistan.
The conversation between the two presidents came hours after Washington omitted Spain from a statement thanking some thirty countries that were collaborating with the United States in the evacuation from Afghanistan.
After the talk between Biden and Sánchez, the White House released a statement saying that the US president praised Spain’s “leadership” in “mobilising international support” for Afghan women and girls in the face of the Taliban’s rise to power.
According to the statement, Biden also thanked Sánchez for “Spain’s assistance in temporarily hosting at-risk Afghans bound for the United States at the Morón and Rota bases”.
The White House added that the two leaders discussed the “latest developments in Afghanistan” and highlighted the “joint work” of both countries to “safely evacuate their citizens, Afghans who bravely supported the European Union (EU) mission, and other vulnerable Afghans”.
