<h6><strong>The Diplomat</strong></h6> <h4><strong>State Secretary for Foreign and Global Affairs Diego Martínez Belío concluded a three-day tour of Qatar and Bahrain on Wednesday, where he reviewed the state of bilateral relations with the two Gulf countries and addressed the situation in the Middle East, the Ministry reported in a press release.</strong></h4> In Doha, the State Secretary held a working meeting with Qatar's Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Sultan bin Saad Al Muraikhi, with whom he discussed the state of bilateral relations following the launch of the strategic partnership in Madrid last year, as well as the improvement of economic and trade relations. Martínez Belío, who also addressed the regional situation in the Middle East and other international and European issues, took advantage of his visit to Qatar to meet with embassy staff and Spanish military personnel deployed at the Al Udeid military base, which was bombed by Iran on June 24. He also held working meetings with Marwan Kabalan, Director of Policy Analysis at the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies, and Tarik M. Yousef, Director of the Middle East Council on Global Affairs. In Manama, the State Secretary represented Spain in the first bilateral political consultations between the two countries. On behalf of Bahrain, the meeting was chaired by Undersecretary for Political Affairs Khaled Yousef Al-Jalahma. During the meeting, both parties welcomed this new milestone in the bilateral relationship, as these were the first consultations held since the signing of the agreement on political consultations in 2013. The parties discussed issues such as promoting trade and foreign investment, promoting tourism, and cooperating in agriculture and health. Spain and Bahrain also discussed the regional situation in the Middle East, the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, and the need to move toward implementing the two-state solution between Israel and Palestine. Within the European framework, the parties welcomed the momentum in the European Union-Gulf Cooperation Council partnership and the opening of negotiations for the signing of Strategic Partnership Agreements with the Gulf countries. The European Union-Gulf Cooperation Council ministerial meeting on October 6 will be a new opportunity to advance this partnership. The agenda in Manama continued with a meeting with the Director General of the International Institute for Strategic Studies for the Middle East, a think tank based in Manama, and with the Spanish military personnel of the Combined Maritime Forces in Bahrain, deployed to improve maritime security in the Indian Ocean.
