Eduardo González
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, held his first bilateral meeting yesterday in Washington with his new counterpart from the United Kingdom, the Labor Party David Lammy, with whom he addressed the negotiations on the future fit of Gibraltar in the European Union (EU) after Brexit and with which he agreed on the need to “move quickly for the benefit and interest of all.”
“First very constructive meeting with my new counterpart from the United Kingdom, David Lammy,” Albares declared through his official account on the social network X. The meeting took place in Washington, on the sidelines of the NATO summit.
“We have focused on the agreement in relation to Gibraltar,” Albares continued. “We have gone over the main points,” he added. “We want to move forward quickly for the benefit and interest of all,” he concluded. The British Foreign Office has not reported on the meeting.
Albares had a first telephone conversation with Lammy last Sunday, July 7, just two days after the appointment as Secretary of the Foreign Office by the new Prime Minister, the Labor Party Keir Starmer, after the overwhelming victory of his party in the general elections of the Thursday. During that first conversation, as the minister explained on the social network For his part, Lammy expressed that same day, through the same social network, his desire to work with Albares to “reach an agreement on Gibraltar.”
According to what Albares declared this weekend to La Sexta, the Government's objective is to "restart these negotiations as soon as possible", since much progress had been made with the previous British Executive, and now the priority is to complete them for the benefit of "those 300,000 Andalusians." and Gibraltarians from Campo de Gibraltar.”
The last meeting on Gibraltar was held in Brussels on May 16 with the participation of Albares, Lammy's predecessor, David Cameron, and the vice president of the European Commission in charge of the issue, Maros Sefcovic, as well as the chief minister of Gibraltar, Fabian Picard.
That was the second meeting within this format, after the one held on April 12 and which concluded with a joint statement in which the three parties limited themselves to announcing that the negotiations had been “held in a constructive atmosphere” and were They had made “significant progress.” According to Albares, at the May meeting “important progress” was made based on “the political lines already agreed on April 12, which referred to mobility, goods and the airport,” but he warned that, although the perspective is that “there is an agreement”, there is still “no possible deadline”.
A few days before the British elections, still as Foreign Secretary for the Labor Party, David Lammy assured that if he took over as Foreign Secretary he would approach the agreement on the future of Gibraltar from the point where David Cameron had left off. On the same day of Lammy's appointment, Fabian Picardo expressed his confidence that after the victory of the Labor Party in the United Kingdom, negotiations could be accelerated.
Other bilateral meetings
Albares also took advantage of his stay in Washington to maintain bilateral contacts with colleagues from different countries. Thus, as the minister explained in his account on the social network X, he met with the Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dmytro Kuleba, with whom he spoke of "Spain's firm support for Ukraine in its defence of freedom and its territorial integrity, and how to continue advancing in the Ukraine Peace Plan for a just and lasting peace".
He also held a meeting with his Albanian counterpart, Iglil Hasani, with whom he discussed the "excellent bilateral relations" and the shared agenda "including the southern neighbourhood". "We also discussed his EU accession process, which Spain supports," added Albares.
He also met with his Icelandic colleague, Thordis Kolbrun, with whom he said they had discussed bilateral relations, "which will be strengthened, he announced, with the opening of their embassy in Madrid". Albares added that he also discussed cooperation in NATO and the situation in Ukraine and Gaza with the Icelandic minister.
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