The Diplomat
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, embarks today on a tour that will take him to three key Gulf countries, such as Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, in a new effort to promote solutions to the Middle East crisis.
“Albares resumes, with this new tour, the commitment expressed during his recent visit to Lebanon and Iraq to visit the region more frequently to meet with the main protagonists of the region with a view to finding solutions to the crisis in the Middle East,” he highlighted. today the Ministry in a press release.
The first stop will be in Qatar, a key country in the current mediation to end the crisis in Gaza. In the Qatari capital he will hold a meeting with the Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sheikh Mohamed Bin Abdelrahman Al Zani, among other activities.
The minister will address how the two countries, Spain and Qatar, can collaborate to bring peace to the area. Albares also plans to take an interest in the latest contacts that the Qatari authorities maintain with the parties and offer the necessary help from Spain to establish a new dynamic of peace in the region. The strength of economic relations with Qatar will also be on the minister’s agenda in meetings with representatives of Spanish companies in the country and with the Association of Qatari Businesswomen.
Spanish-Qatari cooperation in the promotion of Spanish culture and language will be addressed in a meeting with Spanish students and teachers in that country, as well as in a visit to the Museum of Islamic Art, where the minister plans to take a brief tour of the section of art objects related to Spain.
Saudi Arabia
The push for solutions to promote peace in the Middle East, through the implementation of the two-state solution, is also the main reason that will lead him to travel to Riyadh on the central day of this tour of the Gulf. There he will hold a meeting with his counterpart, Foreign Minister Faisal Bin Farhan Al Saud, with whom he will also address the situation in the region and to whom he will convey the proposals that Spain is handling to bring peace to the region. The Saudi minister chairs the Contact Group of the League of Arab States and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, and in this capacity he participated in the Regional Forum of the Union for the Mediterranean on November 27 in Barcelona.
Albares will raise in Saudi Arabia the next steps to be taken within the Euro-Arab consultation to advance the effective establishment of the Palestinian State, within the framework of the two-state solution advocated by Spain. In Riyadh, Albares will also continue to promote the growing bilateral economic agenda, in meetings with economic ministers of the Saudi Government, as well as with representatives of Spanish companies active in the country.
Contacts with civil society and cultural and tourism exchanges are also part of the minister’s program in Saudi Arabia, a country that is experiencing an accelerated process of modernization within the framework of “Vision 2030”, which must culminate in the Riyadh Universal Exhibition that year.
Abu Dhabi
The last stage, which closes this tour of the Gulf, will take Albares to Abu Dhabi. In the capital of the United Arab Emirates, the Spanish minister will hold a meeting with his Emirati counterpart, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, with whom he will also be able to contrast the reception received by the Spanish proposals.
The Spanish-Emirati economic agenda will include, among other issues, the visit to the state renewable energy company Masdar and the meeting with the CEO of that company, Mohamed Jamil Al Ramahi, who is based in Madrid to cover Spain, North Africa, Europe and Latin America.
