Eduardo González
The agenda of the bilateral meeting that the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, and the US Secretary of State, Antony J. Blinken, will hold this Friday in Washington, includes the evolution of the war in Ukraine and aid to this country, the situation in Gaza and the Middle East, the next NATO Summit and the update on the Palomares issue.
The meeting between Albares and Blinken was announced this past Monday by the minister during the Business Meeting for the Generation of Opportunities, organized in Madrid by the Europa Press agency and the consulting firm McKinsey & Company. In his speech, Albares specified that the bilateral meeting will serve to analyze the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, because the Spanish Government “defends exactly the same principles” in both conflicts: “Let peace return in both places, but let it be a just peace, a peace within the United Nations Charter.”
According to Foreign Affairs sources informed to The Diplomat, during the bilateral meeting in Washington “foreign policy issues of interest to Spain and the United States will be addressed, within the framework of the excellent relations between both countries.”
Ukraine and Gaza
One of the topics of the meeting, according to the same sources, will be the evolution of the war in Ukraine and aid to this country. Albares himself celebrated, on April 19, the decision of the US House of Representatives to approve a package of almost 60 billion euros of aid for Ukraine “at a crucial moment.” For its part, last December the Council of Ministers authorized a Spanish financial contribution of 237,558,508 euros to Ukraine during the period 2024-2027, within the framework of the 50 billion euro package approved by the European Commission and the European Parliament. to support this country.
On April 26, the Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, announced before the Contact Group for the Defense of Ukraine, led by the United States, the shipment, by Spain, of long-range Patriot anti-aircraft interceptor missiles, machine guns, vehicles, anti-tank weapons, artillery howitzers, anti-aircraft surveillance systems and new Leopard battle tanks.
Another important issue during the meeting will be the situation in Gaza and the Middle East. Precisely, Albares had a telephone conversation with Blinken at the end of last October to talk about the situation in the Middle East and the need to avoid escalating the conflict.
Furthermore, the meeting will take place in the midst of the diplomatic offensive of the Spanish Government to accelerate the international recognition of the Palestinian State, one of the great foreign objectives of Pedro Sánchez, and after the US decided to veto, on April 17, a proposal for resolution in the UN Security Council for Palestine to go from observer to full member of the United Nations.
NATO Summit and Palomares
The third point of interest in the bilateral meeting between Albares and Blinken will be the next NATO Summit, which will be held in July precisely in Washington and in which, among other issues, the proposal raised by the Secretary General of the Alliance will be approved. , Jens Stoltenberg, to create a multi-year financial support fund for Ukraine of 100 billion euros for an initial duration of five years, and the reinforcement of security in the Southern Neighborhood of the Alliance, including the persistent threat of terrorism, one of the great priorities of Spain for years.
The fourth point of discussion will be the update of the Palomares issue, to evaluate progress. Precisely, this issue was addressed by Albares and Blinken during their last bilateral meeting, which took place exactly a year ago in Washington. On that occasion, the Secretary of State assured the minister that the negotiations with Spain for the removal of land contaminated with plutonium from Palomares (Almería) would be resumed “soon” and, just two days later, the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez , assured that both he and the president of the United States, Joe Biden, were going to ask the technical teams of both governments to meet “as soon as possible” to develop the details of the removal of nuclear waste in Palomares.
In March 2023, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs presented “the official request” to the United States to proceed with the removal of 50 tons of contaminated soil for 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 American planes while flying over Spain.
The first meeting between Albares and Blinken took place in October 2021 in Paris, coinciding with the celebration of the Ministerial Council of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The two met again in January 2022 during Albares’ first trip to Washington, where they talked about the crisis between Russia and Ukraine (before the start of the invasion), the NATO Summit in Madrid, democracy in Latin America and the situation in Western Sahara.
Likewise, they met again at the end of June of that same year in Madrid, on the occasion of President Biden’s visit to meet with Pedro Sánchez and participate in the NATO Summit. They also met in September 2022 in New York, coinciding with the Ministerial Week of the United Nations General Assembly, and two months later in Bucharest, on the sidelines of the NATO foreign ministers’ meeting. Their last bilateral meeting took place exactly a year ago in Washington.
