The Diplomat
The agreement between the Kingdom of Spain and the State of Qatar on the abolition of visa requirements for holders of diplomatic, special and service passports will enter into force on November 12, as published last week in the Official State Gazette (BOE).
In mid-2010, the authorities of the State of Qatar proposed to Spain the start of negotiations for the signing of a bilateral agreement to waive visa requirements for holders of diplomatic and special passports, for which they submitted a draft agreement. Negotiations dragged on for several years, until, finally, a consensus on the text was reached in early 2019.
The agreement was authorized by the Council of Ministers on September 1, 2020 and was signed in Madrid and Doha on October 26, 2020 on the occasion of telematic political consultations between the then Foreign Minister, Arancha Gonzalez Laya, and her Qatari counterpart, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani.
“The agreement aims to promote friendly relations and cooperation between the two countries and facilitate the free movement of holders of diplomatic, special and service passports,” as reported by the Executive. The possibility of adopting visa waiver agreements for certain categories of passports is provided for in Community Regulation (EC) 539/2001 of March 15, 2001, which, in addition to determining the third countries whose nationals must be in possession of visas when crossing the external borders of the Member States of the European Union, allows the latter to establish exceptions to the visa requirement for nationals of third countries when they are holders of diplomatic, service or other official passports.
Under the agreement, nationals of either country who are holders of valid diplomatic passports may enter the territory of the other country, on official or private visits, without a visa for stays not exceeding 90 days in any 180-day period. The agreement also contains the so-called Schengen clause, which facilitates the calculation of the time of visa-free stay in all the territories of the States to which the Schengen Agreement applies.
Each of the parties may suspend, in whole or in part, the application of the agreement for an indefinite period of time for reasons of national security, public order or public health. The adoption and, as the case may be, the suppression of such measure shall be notified immediately through diplomatic channels. Any dispute concerning the interpretation or application of the text shall be resolved through negotiation between the parties through diplomatic channels. This agreement shall remain in force for an indefinite period of time unless either party notifies the other party in writing through diplomatic channels of its desire to terminate it.
