Albares: “The Israeli bombings do not differentiate between civilians and terrorists, neither in Gaza nor in Lebanon”

Eduardo González The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, presented this Monday the new Master Plan for Spanish Cooperation 2024-2027, a document that “is aligned with the main objective” of Spanish foreign policy, “which is the achievement of peace” at a time when “war triumphs so openly” and In a time when the world is facing “the upheaval caused by the illegal and unjust invasion of Ukraine and by the Middle East conflict, where Israeli bombings do not distinguish between civilians and terrorist targets in Gaza or Lebanon.” “Cooperation is one of the hallmarks of Spain in the world; it is also a reflection of the best values of our society: solidarity, justice, commitment to the most vulnerable and to the defence of the planet,” said Albares during the event, held at the Ministry's headquarters in Marqués de Salamanca (Madrid) and attended by the main actors of Spanish Cooperation. According to Albares, “the plan is based on the centrality of human rights and the promotion of inclusive and sustainable development, which must guarantee the equality of all human beings and which are features of our foreign policy with its own identity.” In addition, he continued, the plan “is committed to cooperation that, like our entire foreign policy, is feminist and therefore places the rights and empowerment of women and girls at the centre of our international action in all places on the planet, including places where they are openly violated today, and I want to denounce this once again, such as Afghanistan.” “The policy of cooperation is an integral part of our foreign action, one cannot be understood without the other” and, for this reason, “this Master Plan is aligned with the main objective that we have in our foreign policy, which is the achievement of peace, so important at this time, where war triumphs so openly in places like Ukraine, Gaza, Lebanon,” said the minister. “Our cooperation is an exercise in solidarity, but it is also an exercise in responsibility, it is our contribution to a more prosperous, more inclusive, more peaceful world, because, in the end, the least unequal societies are always the fairest, most prosperous societies and they are also the safest societies in the face of the great challenges we face,” said Albares. “This is especially important now, when we are going through a time of accelerated transitions and greater uncertainties” in which “new gaps and new inequalities appear,” such as “inequality in the face of climate risk and inequality in the face of the energy crisis, which are superimposed on old inequalities that unfortunately do not disappear, such as gender or economic and social inequalities,” he continued. “Added to these challenges is the upheaval caused by the illegal and unjust invasion of Ukraine and by the Middle East conflict, where Israeli bombings do not differentiate between civilians and terrorist targets in Gaza or Lebanon, and they must stop now,” he warned. “These are two conflicts, Ukraine and the Middle East, which we face in the same way: Spain, its cooperation, its foreign policy, faces them in exactly the same way, with the same values, with the same objectives, with a clear commitment to the defence and respect of International Law, with a clear commitment to International Humanitarian Law that protects and defends civilians, because even wars have rules,” he added. “These are probably the most important challenges we have faced in Europe since the fall of the Berlin Wall, but that does not make our task more difficult: it makes it more important, it makes it more urgent,” warned the Minister of Foreign Affairs. “In the face of those who seek to erode our framework for collaboration between countries, the 2030 Agenda provides a common space and a shared framework at a global level whose ultimate goal is to jointly advance towards sustainable development for the entire planet, and contributing to its achievement is the fundamental mission of Spanish Cooperation and the new Master Plan,” he continued. “All this translates into an alignment of the priorities of this Plan with the European and international agenda for sustainable development,” because “we are committed to better European coordination to achieve more effective and more results-oriented cooperation,” he added. The Master Plan The Master Plan for Spanish Cooperation 2024-2027, the document that sets the objectives and priorities for the coming years, was approved by the Council of Ministers on July 23 after “a long consultative process” in which civil society, autonomous communities, city councils and parliamentary groups participated, according to Albares. One of the novelties of the plan, as the minister himself highlighted after its approval, is that it includes, “for the first time”, West Africa and the Sahel as one of the priority regions, which will entail the development of a specific strategy for this area. According to Foreign Affairs, the countries of origin of the migratory flows require “a reinforcement of cooperation to address the root causes of migration”.

Related Content

History of ‘Scarface’, a Nazi high command in Franco's Spain

Peter Paul Rubens: spy and ambassador just for the love of art

British Cemetery in Madrid: the final resting place for “heretic” diplomats

Rubén Darío, Nicaragua’s Ambassador to the Spain of Alfonso XIII

History of Piotr Potemkin and the first Russian embassy in Spanish history