The Diplomat
The Ministers of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, and of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, received yesterday in Madrid the head of Gambian diplomacy, Mamadou Tangara, with whom they agreed to hold political consultations and strengthen cooperation in security matters.
The stay of the Gambian Minister of Foreign Affairs, International Cooperation and Gambians Abroad, Mamadou Tangara, began with a working meeting with Albares at the headquarters of the Ministry, with whom, as reported by the Spanish minister through his Twitter account, he addressed “bilateral relations and the challenges and opportunities in West Africa” and signed “an agreement on political consultations to advance our cooperation”.
Subsequently, Tangara was received at the headquarters of the Ministry of the Interior by Grande-Marlaska, with whom he discussed “the reinforcement of cooperation in security matters between the two countries”, as reported by this department through the same social network.
Both meetings took place eight days after the Gambian ambassador to Spain, Noah Touray, presented his Letters of Credence to King Felipe VI. During his interview with the Monarch, as reported by the Gambian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Touray expressed his “gratitude for the continuous support” provided by Spain to The Gambia, with special mention to the Ministry of Interior, and in particular the Department of Immigration. He also welcomed the choice of The Gambia as a destination for Spanish tourists and the activities of Spanish aid workers in the country. The Ambassador and the King also discussed security in the Sahel and on the West African coast, investment, trade and tourism and “the need to improve services at the Spanish diplomatic antenna in Banjul to include consular activities”.
Spain maintains good bilateral relations with The Gambia, which intensified especially since the migration crisis of 2006, which led to a series of high-level visits, including the first visit to Banjul by a Spanish Foreign Minister (namely Miguel Angel Moratinos) in June 2006, which was followed by another in October of the same year. Grande-Marlaska himself visited the country in January 2019, two months before the then Foreign Minister, Josep Borrell, did so.
Bilateral relations are based, above all, on cooperation in the fight against illegal immigration, with a special focus on strengthening Gambian capacities in border control, which takes the form of both training and the donation of equipment to the Gambian Ministry of the Interior and the Gambian Navy. Operational support from the Spanish Ministry of the Interior has also been deployed and a Joint Investigation Team against human trafficking and human smuggling has been launched.
As for development cooperation, The Gambia is no longer included in the latest Master Plan, although the country continues to benefit from Spanish funds through projects of international and regional organizations, especially ECOWAS. On the other hand, some Spanish NGOs continue to work in The Gambia, especially in the areas of children and gender equality. In 2017, AECID started operating again in the country with EU funds.
Africa Day
Tangara’s visit in Spain coincided with the celebration of Africa Day and the meeting, for that reason, of Casa África’s Diplomatic Council, composed of African ambassadors accredited in Spain and chaired by the dean of African ambassadors, at the headquarters of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
On the occasion of this day, Albares issued a video yesterday in which he assured that “this has been an exceptional year for Spain’s foreign policy towards Africa” for “the first state visit” of the King and Queen “to a sub-Saharan country, Angola”, and for the trip of the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, to Kenya and South Africa.
“I myself have made a tour that took me to Senegal, Niger, Nigeria, Guinea-Bissau,” he recalled. “I have also traveled to Ethiopia, a visit in which I addressed for the first time in history in Spanish the Executive Council of the African Union, all the AU Foreign Ministers”, before whom “I reaffirmed our confidence in multilateralism in Africa”, a confidence that was backed by Spain “with a contribution of 70 million euros to the African Union”.
