The Diplomat
The Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, highlighted yesterday in Lisbon, during the closing of the Forum La Toja-Atlantic Link, “the leadership” of Spain and Portugal, both in the EU and NATO, in the defense of “peace and democratic values”.
“Both in NATO and in the European Union, Spain and Portugal are united in a firm and unequivocal commitment to peace and democratic values, because we believe that security and defense and investing in security and defense is investing in peace and we have carried out many joint peace missions,” said the minister during the closing of the La Toja-Atlantic Link Forum, held in Lisbon.
“Spain and Portugal are two countries that have a very important presence in the sphere of the European Union and in the sphere of NATO, of this transatlantic link that is highlighting the importance of peace,” she continued. “Spain and Portugal are showing political leadership in Europe”, because “Europe cannot be understood without the leadership of the countries of the South” and because “they are two great countries that make a greater Europe, a stronger Europe and of which here, on this balcony of the Atlantic, we all feel deeply proud”.
The Minister -who was accompanied by the Prime Minister of Portugal, António Costa, and the President of the La Toja Forum, Josep Piqué– also recalled “the emotion I felt two years ago when Spain and Portugal worked side by side to rescue the Afghans”, as well as the various military missions in which the two countries participate, such as the Atalanta operation against piracy. He also paid tribute to the rescue teams sent to help earthquake victims in Turkey and Syria. These teams “are mainly in Turkey, because in Syria it is more difficult, because we have had a terrible war for many years, a cruel war,” she added.
Lisbon hosted yesterday a special edition of the Forum La Toja-Enlace Atlántico, promoted by the former minister Josep Piqué and the president of the hotel group Hotusa, Amancio López Seijas, and held at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon. The event in the Portuguese capital precedes the fifth edition of the La Toja Forum itself, which will be held in October on the Galician island that gives it its name.
Among its speakers in Lisbon was former Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, who warned, during the debate entitled A New Ibero-America and a New Transatlantic Relationship, of the need for Ibero-American countries to overcome their trade dependence on China in order to “strengthen liberal democracies” and reduce the “great” polarization that exists in the region.
“The values of liberal democracies are far superior to those that China has or that any of the Latin American governments may have at this time,” he said. For this reason, he continued, although “everyone trades with whomever they deem appropriate and convenient and, without a doubt, having good trade relations with China is great”, trade relations “are not just about money and trade, they are also about principles”.
According to Rajoy, Europe wants to maintain better trade relations with Latin America, trade relations that “are accompanied by democratic clauses” that help “strengthen liberal democracies”. “The principles of democracy are not the same as those of China,” he added, “with all my respect for China.
