Eduardo González
The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, assured yesterday that both he and the President of the United States, Joe Biden, are going to ask the technical teams of both governments to “meet as soon as possible” to develop the details of the removal of the nuclear waste in Palomares.
This was announced by Sánchez during his appearance before the press after his bilateral meeting at the White House with Joe Biden. “There is clearly progress and the will to resolve the problem has been shown,” he assured. “We have summoned the technical teams to meet as soon as possible so that, once and for all, the extraction of the contaminated soils and their transfer out of Spain can begin,” he added. “The two Presidents tasked their teams with pursuing negotiations on an agreement related to further cleanup efforts at the site of a 1966 air accident in Palomares,” the White House said.
Last Wednesday, the US Secretary of State, Tony Blinken, assured in Washington, during the joint press conference with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, that the US will “soon” resume negotiations with Spain for the removal of the land contaminated with plutonium from Palomares (Almería). Last March, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs submitted to the United States “the official request” to proceed with the removal of 50 tons of contaminated soil for its transfer to the Nevada desert, in compliance with the non-binding commitment agreed by both countries in 2015 to put an end to this dispute, which began 57 years ago with the nuclear accident of two US planes while flying over Spain.
Ukraine
Separately, Sánchez and Biden spent “long and extensive” time on Russia’s war against Ukraine. “The end we envision for this invasion is the withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukrainian soil,” the prime minister declared. “We would do badly if we were to achieve peace against Ukraine’s criteria,” added Sánchez. In this sense, he recalled that, during his recent meetings with the presidents of China and Brazil, Xi Jinping and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, respectively, to learn first-hand about their proposals to end the war in Ukraine, “I have always conveyed that there is an aggressor and an aggressed” and, therefore, “any peace formula has to have the support of Ukraine and be based on the peace formula put forward before the G20 in Bali by President Volodimir Zelensky”.
As reported by the White House in a press release, the two leaders stressed their “unwavering support for Ukraine in the face of Russia’s brutal war, including through continued security, economic, and humanitarian assistance to Ukraine, as well as the imposition of measures to impose economic costs on Moscow.”
Bilateral agreements
During the meeting, Sánchez and Biden signed a bilateral agreement on security and defense cooperation and, according to the White House, “noted the recent signing of the expanded Agreement on Defense Cooperation between the United States and Spain, which facilitates the presence of additional U.S. warships in Spain and enhances NATO’s collective security.”
They also signed another agreement on scientific and technological cooperation. In this regard, Sánchez announced Spain’s decision to join the Artemis agreements, which promote collaboration between countries with the aim of returning to the Moon and preparing for future travel to Mars, as well as the renewal of the collaboration agreement with NASA, which has been in place since 1964 through the facilities in Robledo de Chavela and which will be enhanced with the recently created Spanish Space Agency, headquartered in Seville. In addition, the Spanish Ministry of Science and the US Department of Energy will promote scientific cooperation with different advanced research and expert exchange programs in fields such as quantum research and neutrino experimentation, among others.
The two presidents also stressed the importance of making progress in trade negotiations between the US and the European Union -an issue that will be promoted under the Spanish Presidency of the Council of the EU-, as well as in the resolution of some pending bilateral disputes, such as the issue of tariffs on Spanish black olives, “a dispute created by the previous Trump Administration”, which “is in the hands of the WTO, which has been clear on this matter”, and in which “I have found receptiveness on the part of the Biden Administration to resolve it”, said the President of the Government.
Spanish Presidency and migration
Likewise, Sánchez explained to Biden the “ambitious objectives” of the Spanish Presidency of the EU, with special attention to the open strategic autonomy and the “first EU-CELAC Summit since 2015”. “Latin America is a region of shared interest for Spain and the US, including the migratory phenomenon,” he stated. In this regard, according to the White House, the two leaders “pledged to deepen economic cooperation in the Americas, including through the Inter-American Development Bank.”
On the other hand, the United States and Spain pledged yesterday to promote orderly, regular and safe migration flows from Latin America, encouraging labor-based migration. To this end, the two countries and Canada have agreed on a trilateral framework of cooperation for the development of regional migration centers, to expand current circular migration programs and to develop a complementary pathway for migrants and people seeking international protection.
According to Pedro Sánchez, the two governments have a “very similar vision to tackle the fight against irregular migration by promoting positive incentives for regular migration”, such as the circular migration program implemented by Spain “in many Central American and Latin American countries”, the program to attract highly qualified talent or the “innovative program for the resettlement of people with refugee status in accordance with the labor needs of the Spanish labor market”.
In this regard, Sánchez could not specify how many migrants will come to Spain under this program, but indicated that the Ministers of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, and of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, José Luis Escrivá, “are working to determine the number of migrants who will come to Spain”. According to the White House, President Biden also thanked Spain for its recent commitment to expand safe, humane, and regular migration pathways for individuals from Latin America.
