<h6><strong>Eduardo González</strong></h6> <strong>The Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, yesterday concluded an official visit to Mauritania, where she discussed with her counterpart and the president of the country the improvement of military and training capabilities to face the "worrying situation" of security in the Sahel.</strong> Mauritania is an “essential actor” in advancing peace and defending democratic values in the Sahel, “where the situation is worrying,” Robles said after meeting her Mauritanian counterpart, Hanana Ould Sidi, in Nouakchott, according to a press release from the Ministry of Defense. Spain and Mauritania, which maintain “excellent bilateral relations and solid military cooperation,” reiterated during the meeting their “commitment to a more just international order and the protection of human rights, as well as to strengthening relations between the two countries to improve military capabilities and specific training,” Robles said after the meeting. For his part, Hanana Ould Sidi warned that peace can only be a joint objective based on two axes: having capabilities and training and solidarity between countries. In this regard, Minister Robles highlighted the collaboration between CESEDEN (the main centre for teaching and disseminating national defence culture in Spain, dependent on the Ministry) and the G-5 Sahel Defence College in Nouakchott, as well as cooperative security activities focused on the training of units or guaranteeing security in military installations and the deployment of Spanish Armed Forces in the Gulf of Guinea, since 2010, in surveillance and stability tasks. The Minister of Defence also held a meeting with the President of Mauritania, Mohamed Cheikh El Ghazouani, who highlighted the joint work with Spain in the Sahel region. For her part, Margarita Robles thanked Mauritania for its welcome and the good harmony in working on aspects related to security and defence in “such turbulent times as those we are currently experiencing”. On September 17, the Treaty of Friendship, Good Neighborliness and Cooperation between the Kingdom of Spain and the Islamic Republic of Mauritania came into force. It was signed in Madrid on July 24, 2008 and under which the two countries will hold, starting in 2025, a High Level Meeting (RAN) between the heads of government of both countries at least every two years and alternately in one country and the other.
