The Diplomat
The State Secretary for Foreign and Global Affairs, Ángeles Moreno Bau, yesterday held her first political consultations with her French counterpart, Anne-Marie Descôtes, since the recent Hispano-Gala Summit in Barcelona, which raised bilateral relations to the highest level with the signing of the new Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation.
“I have met in Paris with the secretary general of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Anne-Marie Descôtes,” Moreno reported via his Twitter account. “We have exchanged views on security, strategic autonomy, the situation in Ukraine, the Spanish Presidency of the EU, the Mediterranean and other current international issues,” she added.
“Under the Barcelona Treaty, I have held with my Spanish counterpart Angeles Moreno Bau very useful France-Spain consultations on our common concerns,” Descôtes said via the same social network. “France will bring its full support to the upcoming Spanish Presidency of the EU,” she added.
The XXVII Spanish-French Summit, held last January 19 in Barcelona, concluded with the signing of the new Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation, the first of these characteristics between the two countries and which raises bilateral relations to the highest possible level, comparable to the one Spain already has with Portugal since the Trujillo Summit in October 2021 and the one France has with Germany and Italy since Aachen in 1963 and Rome in 2021, respectively.
The text foresees, among other novelties, the creation of a Franco-Spanish Defense and Security Council made up of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Defense, the development of a common framework for international relations, regular meetings between the Ministers of Economy, Industry, Connectivity and Tourism, the holding of an annual business and economic forum, the development of interconnections, the Common Agricultural Policy and the Common Fisheries Policy, and the setting up of a border cooperation committee.
