Spain establishes with Brazil its first High Level Meeting with a Latin American country

Eduardo González The Spanish Government has reached an agreement with Brazil to establish the first High Level Meeting (RAN, for its acronym in Spanish) between Spain and a Latin American country, a bilateral format that already exists with several countries in our environment and in which both the heads of Government (or State, in some cases) and the different ministries participate. The decision was announced this Monday by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, with his Brazilian counterpart, Mauro Vieira, at the headquarters of the Ministry in the Santa Cruz Palace, on the occasion of the first meeting of the Permanent Bilateral Commission (CBP) Brazil Spain. The CBP meeting, which constitutes “a milestone in the relations between Spain and Brazil”, has already “yielded a first-rate result”, declared Albares during the joint press conference with Vieira. “We have decided to elevate bilateral meetings with Brazil to the level of bilateral summits at the level of presidents,” thus “establishing this format for the first time with a Latin American country,” he continued. “Spain only has this format with top-level strategic partners, such as, of course, Brazil,” he added. Spain currently holds high-level meetings with countries such as Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Portugal, France, Turkey, Poland, Mauritania and Romania. This decision is “palpable proof of the privileged relationship that Spain and Brazil maintain and the relevance that Spain gives to Brazil as a regional partner in Latin America and in the world,” in its capacity as “a very active and relevant member of the G20 and a member of the BRICs,” Albares stressed. “In fact, at the end of the week we will meet again in South Africa, at the meeting of foreign ministers of the G20,” he recalled. In addition, Albares and Vieira discussed “issues relevant to both countries and the global agenda,” such as “the defense of democracy, the threats that loom over it and how to protect it from attacks and the extreme right,” and the promotion of “investment relations in both directions.” “Spanish companies in Brazil have a long-term commitment to the country and Spain is the second largest foreign investor in Brazil.” They also concluded a new agreement on consular assistance. Furthermore, the minister highlighted the conclusion, on December 6, of negotiations between the European Union and Mercosur for the signing of a trade agreement, whose ratification faces firm opposition from France, which leads the group of EU countries that have expressed their fear that this agreement will accelerate deforestation in the Amazon and have a negative impact on European agriculture. “We firmly believe in the benefits” of this agreement “for both blocks due to the lowering of tariffs,” said Albares. Vieira For his part, Mauro Viera highlighted the holding of the first Permanent Commission, whose objective is “to offer greater intensity to the bilateral relationship and ensure agility in the implementation of the commitments assumed in a broad thematic spectrum through nine thematic subcommittees (on technical cooperation, education, culture, science and technology, defense, environment, energy, consular and migration issues and the fight against crime) that have met in recent months” and that also did so this Monday in Madrid. “The meetings of the subcommittees and today's meeting are the result of the growing rapprochement between Brazil and Spain,” which began “with the visit of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in April 2023 and was followed by the visit of President Pedro Sánchez to Brasilia in March 2024,” he continued. “Considering the positive results of the Permanent Commission and with the conviction that we have about the convergent objectives between Brazil and Spain, we have decided to elevate the Permanent Commission to the level of a presidential summit, accompanied by ministerial delegations from both countries,” he announced, as did Albares. The creation of the Brazil-Spain Permanent Bilateral Commission was agreed in May 2021, through the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding during the visit to Brasilia of the then Minister of Foreign Affairs, Arancha González Laya. During Lula's visit to Spain in April 2023, the foundations were laid for the preparation of the first meeting of the Commission and during Pedro Sánchez's subsequent visit to Brazil, in March 2024, a new roadmap for the Brazil-Spain Permanent Bilateral Commission was established through the Declaration of Follow-up to the Renewed Brazil-Spain Strategic Partnership, which should meet in alternate years under the presidency of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs. Vieira also highlighted that Spain has been “for more than a decade the second largest foreign direct investor, with a total investment stock of 60 billion dollars and an annual flow of around 3.3 billion dollars in the last ten years”, and assured that Brazil “wants to create conditions for Spanish companies to increase these investments and for Brazilian companies to do the same and invest more in Spain”. In addition, the Brazilian minister thanked “the Spanish Government for its continued support of the Mercosur-EU agreement”, the “largest free trade agreement in the world”, and highlighted “the geopolitical importance of the agreement in an international context of growing protectionism and trade unilateralism”. Following the bilateral meeting, Albares and Vieira participated in the Spain-Brazil Dialogue, organised by the Spain-Brazil Council Foundation at the Ministry's headquarters in Marqués de Salamanca, which brought together entities from the business sector and civil society.

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