Eduardo González
King Felipe VI yesterday received the President of the Republic of Cape Verde, José María Pereira Neves, at the La Zarzuela Palace, who has been in Spain for a working visit since last week.
Neves went to the La Zarzuela Palace accompanied by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares; by the Cape Verdean Minister of Foreign Affairs, Rui Alberto Figueredo Soares; and by the head of the Civil House of the President, Jorge Homero Tolentino. This meeting, according to the Cape Verdean Presidency, has served to “look at the present and future of the good relations between Cape Verde and Spain, always with the vision of strengthening them.” In addition, Albares held a meeting yesterday morning with his counterpart at the ministerial headquarters of the Viana Palace, in Madrid.
President Neves has been in Spain since April 5 for a working visit on the occasion of his participation in the United Nations Conference for the Ocean Decade, which is taking place this week in Barcelona and which he is attending as a Patron of the Alliance for the Ocean Decade. The Conference brings together the Ocean Decade community and partners to celebrate achievements and set joint priorities for the future.
The president will speak today at the Conference, in which he will explain Cape Verde’s experience in the sustainable exploitation of marine resources. “The sea is the future of the archipelagos, of the small island developing States,” declared Neves, quoted yesterday by the Cape Verdean Presidency website. “The Cape Verde Sea is extraordinarily rich so that we have a much more promising future,” he added.
José María Neves -who already visited Spain in March 2007, then as Prime Minister- was received on Friday by the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, with whom he addressed the strengthening of bilateral relations in areas such as development cooperation. and the blue economy, especially water treatment and sustainable fishing. Likewise, both shared “the firm commitment of both Governments to the fight against climate change, an issue of vital importance for an island country like Cape Verde, with special attention to drought and the promotion of renewable energies.”
On the other hand, Neves has taken advantage of his presence in Spain to meet with the Cape Verdean communities settled in the regions of Madrid, Galicia, León (specifically, Bierzo) and Barcelona and to visit the headquarters of the UN Tourism, where he held a meeting with its secretary general, Zurab Pololikashvili. The Cape Verdean community in Spain is made up of more than 4,600 people, according to the latest data from January 2022. The largest group is in Madrid, with more than 1,600 people, followed by Galicia, with almost 800. In the province of León There are more than 500 Cape Verdeans.
