Spain-Mauritania treaty enters into force to hold high-level meetings every two years

Eduardo González Starting in 2025, Spain and Mauritania will hold a High Level Meeting (HLM) between the heads of government of both countries at least every two years and alternately in one country and the other, as stated in the Treaty of Friendship, Good Neighbourliness and Cooperation between the Kingdom of Spain and the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, signed in Madrid on 24 July 2008 and in force since 17 September. The Treaty of Friendship, Good Neighbourliness and Cooperation between Spain and Mauritania was signed in Madrid on 24 July 2008, with prior authorisation from the Council of Ministers on the same day. The signatories were the President of the Government, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, on the Spanish side, and the then President Sidi Mohamed Ould Cheikh Abdallahi, on the Mauritanian side. The coup d'état of 6 August 2008, which deposed President Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi, advised to stop the ratification procedure of the treaty, but the visit made on 17 March 2022 to Spain by President Mohamed Ould Ghazouani - democratically elected in 2019 - was a "propitious occasion to strengthen bilateral relations at the highest political level and resume the procedure to advance the process of ratification of the treaty", as reported by the Executive in June of that same year, when it approved the referral of the Treaty to the Cortes Generales (Spanish Parliament). The treaty, which surpasses the Political Declaration (signed in 2003) and the Memorandum of Understanding on Political Consultations (signed in 2015) with a conventional instrument of higher rank, aims to strengthen and enhance bilateral relations between both States, both at the highest political level and between ministerial departments, the private sector and civil society. The Treaty also aims to improve cooperation in a wide range of areas: economic and financial, cooperation in the field of security, defence, legal aspects, consular and immigration matters, the fight against terrorism, organised crime and illicit drug trafficking. Finally, other aspects are included, such as Development Cooperation and the areas of culture and education. Under the Treaty, published this Monday by the Official State Gazette (BOE), the parties, “eager to strengthen and enhance the ties of friendship and cooperation that unite them”, intend to establish “a framework for bilateral political consultations in accordance with the level of agreement and cooperation to which they aspire”. To this end, the two countries undertake to hold a regular High Level meeting between the heads of Government of both countries, at least every two years, alternately in Spain and Mauritania. It also provides for a bilateral ministerial meeting on Foreign Affairs once a year and regular consultations between the Secretaries of State, General Secretaries and Directors General of the Foreign Affairs departments of both countries. It also provides for the launch of a mechanism for bilateral consultations on human rights, regular consultations between other ministerial departments and State institutions in order to stimulate agreement and cooperation in all fields of economic and social activity and the promotion of contact and dialogue between parliamentary institutions, autonomous communities, municipalities, professional organizations, university, scientific and cultural institutions and representatives of the private sector. On August 27, during his official visit to Nouachokt, the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, and the President of Mauritania, Mohamed Ould Ghazouani, agreed to enhance the relationship between both countries by holding, from 2025, periodic bilateral summits such as those that Spain already holds with other Maghreb countries, such as Morocco and Algeria. The first will take place in Mauritania. In addition, at the end of the meeting, a joint bilateral declaration was agreed upon, which, in addition to bilateral summits, expresses the desire to deepen cooperation in sectors such as migration, health and security and to extend it to other areas of mutual interest.

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