The Diplomat
The Council of Ministers approved last Tuesday the signing ad referendum of the Cultural Cooperation Agreement between Spain and the State of Qatar, while forwarding the text to the Parliament and authorized the expression of Spain’s consent to be bound by the agreement.
The agreement was consensual in 2018 and its signing was authorized in the Council of Ministers on November 26, 2018 and scheduled for February 10, 2021, coinciding with the official trip to Qatar of the then Minister of Foreign Affairs, Arancha González Laya, as part of a tour of the Persian Gulf.
However, days before the date scheduled for the signing, the Qatari authorities communicated that the text they had authorized differed on one point from the one authorized by the Spanish Council of Ministers. Specifically, the word “museums”, which appeared in Article 5 of the Spanish version authorized by the Spanish Government, had no equivalent in the English and Arabic versions approved by the Qatari Government, which was justified by the Qatari authorities on the grounds of “problems of internal distribution of competences”.
Given the impossibility for both parties to alter the wording of an agreement already authorized by their respective governments, and considering that it was not considered opportune to miss the opportunity to sign an agreement that had been under negotiation for some time, it was deemed convenient to proceed with the signing of the text ad referendum, eliminating the word “museums”. Finally, the agreement was signed ad referendum in Doha on the scheduled date of February 10, 2021.
The objective of the agreement is to strengthen bilateral cooperation in the field of culture, with both parties committing to promote greater understanding and knowledge of the arts, culture, tangible and intangible heritage of their respective peoples. The agreement will have an initial term of five years and will be automatically renewed for periods of equal duration, unless one of the parties notifies the other at least six months before the expiration of the term. The termination of this agreement shall not imply the cancellation of programs or activities already initiated or carried out, unless the parties agree otherwise.
