Eduardo González
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, announced yesterday during the meeting of the EU Foreign Affairs Council (FAC) that Spain is going to donate 163 high voltage equipment to Ukraine to cover the needs of “ten million people deprived of electricity”.
“I want to announce to you that Spain is going to donate 163 reconditioned high-voltage equipment for electrical substations,” Albares declared during the press conference following the Council, which was chaired by the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, and in which impressions were exchanged on the Russian aggression against Ukraine and on Iran.
“This is essential equipment for the proper functioning of the high-voltage network and the transport of the same, which is something absolutely pressing at this time in Ukraine, where ten million people are deprived of electricity,” Albares continued. “This equipment is in addition to the fourteen generators already donated by the Government of Spain to supply electricity to residential buildings and the four high-intensity generators that have already been delivered,” he added.
“We want to help combat these energy problems suffered by the people of Ukraine who live every day without light and without heating, and we want Ukraine to recover part of that electricity supply with Spanish equipment,” Albares assured. “This is part of the commitment that Spain is going to announce tomorrow (today) in Paris at the Donors’ Conference for Ukraine”, which is going to take place in the French capital and which will be attended by the director of the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation for Development (AECID), Antón Leis. The minister will not be able to go to Paris because he has to chair in Cadiz the meeting of the Rabat Process on migration issues.
These shipments, according to Albares, “are in addition to the new package of humanitarian aid to Ukraine of 18,000 million euros from the EU, which must arrive as soon as possible” and which Ukraine needs “desperately at this time, given this very difficult and tense winter”.
On the other hand, the minister explained, the 27 committed themselves yesterday “to leave ready the ninth package of sanctions” against Russia, “which are directed against 144 persons, 48 entities and economic sectors”. “In the absence of final details, Spain has defended at the Council table, and will continue to defend, and this is reflected in the proposal that is on the table, exceptions to ensure the supply of food products and fertilizers to countries that are seeing their food security unjustly compromised at this time,” he said.
Regarding Iran, Albares and the rest of his counterparts denounced the human rights violations and executions of people and announced the third package of sanctions against Iran, which “reaches 28 people and two entities”.
The FAC was preceded by the meeting between EU foreign ministers and their counterparts from five of the six Eastern Partnership countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine). Both this meeting and the subsequent Foreign Council meeting were attended by Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba via videoconference.
