<h6><strong>Eduardo González</strong></h6> <h4><strong>The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, has insisted this Friday, before the plenary of the meeting of foreign ministers of the G20 in Johannesburg (South Africa), on the need for a “fair and lasting peace” that respects “the will of the democratically elected Government” in Ukraine.</strong></h4> Albares concluded his participation in the first ministerial meeting of the South African Presidency of the G20, convened under the motto “Solidarity, equality and sustainability” and in which he presented the proposals and the position of Spain in the new international context. Although the G20 is a forum of a fundamentally economic nature and, therefore, does not usually address geopolitical or security issues, the meeting was inevitably marked by the decision of the US President, Donald Trump, to start direct negotiations with the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, to end the war and to exclude Europe and Ukraine itself from these peace negotiations. Another notable element of the meeting was the absence of the US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, who justified his absence with a very brief phrase on social networks: “South Africa is doing very bad things” (specifically, due to the dispute between Trump and the South African President, Cyril Ramaphosa, over South Africa's national laws on land expropriation, equality policies and South Africa's position on Israel and Gaza). Who did attend (as he has done regularly, since the invasion of Ukraine) was the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov. Rubio and Lavrov held their first bilateral meeting in Riyadh on February 18 with the aim of normalizing diplomatic relations between the two powers and seeking a solution to the war in Ukraine. During his speech, Albares reiterated Spain's “unequivocal support for Ukraine” in the face of Russian aggression and advocated for peace negotiations that respect “the will of the democratically elected Government of Ukraine,” that count on “the European voice” and that allow for the achievement of a “just and lasting peace” that is in accordance with the principles of the United Nations Charter. The day before, the minister met with his counterparts from Germany, Denmark, France, the Netherlands, Ireland and Norway, as well as the High Representative of the EU for Foreign and Security Policy, Kaja Kallas, to agree on a common position regarding the war in Ukraine, defend “a just and lasting peace” and support multilateralism and International Law. <h5><strong>Middle East, Agenda 2030, Seville and bilateral meetings</strong></h5> Albares also addressed issues such as climate change, food security, the reform of the financial architecture, debt sustainability, the reduction of poverty and inequalities, digital governance and the impact of artificial intelligence, and reaffirmed Spain's commitment to multilateralism and to dialogue forums such as the G20. The minister also defended the application of the two-state solution in the Middle East and recalled that Seville will host the International Conference on Financing for Development in June, the first to be held in a Western country, ten years after the last one in Addis Ababa, and which will represent, he assured, an opportunity to promote new initiatives and ambitious commitments for the fulfillment of the Agenda 2023 and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). On the sidelines of the G20 ministerial meeting, Albares held bilateral meetings with his counterparts from South Africa, Algeria, Canada, South Korea and Turkey, as well as with the Deputy Secretary General of the United Nations, Amina J. Mohammed, among others.
