The Diplomat
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, begins today his first visit to Sub-Saharan Africa, in which he will visit Mauritania and Senegal with the aim of strengthening collaboration with two “strategic partners of Spain in North Africa”.
The tour will begin in Nouakchott, where Albares will hold a meeting with his Mauritanian counterpart, Mohamed Salem Ould Merzoug, with whom he already met at the recent NATO Summit in Madrid, specifically at the dinner of foreign ministers with the countries of the Southern Neighborhood. During their meeting, Albares and Ould Merzoug will discuss progress in the fight against illegal immigration and security in the Sahel, as well as economic and trade relations between the two countries.
An important part of this visit will be devoted to development and cultural cooperation, according to Foreign Affairs. In this framework, the minister will visit several projects of the Spanish Cooperation in Nouakchott, including the center of the National Society of Fish Distribution, one of the priority actions of the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) in the country, which improves access to fish consumption of the population of Mauritania as a reinforcement of food security.
Mauritania, located only 900 kilometers from the coasts of the Canary Islands, maintains very close relations with Spain in areas such as fishing, development cooperation, the fight against irregular immigration and defense and the fight against terrorism. In addition, Mauritania has been a priority country for Spanish Cooperation since 1995 and is listed in the AECID directory within the group of Least Developed Countries of Association. Queen Doña Letizia visited the country on May 31 and June 2, on her seventh cooperation trip since 2015.
The President of the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, Mohamed Ould Cheikh El Ghazouani, paid a working visit to Spain on March 17, marked, among other issues, by the country’s commitment to security and defense in the Sahel, in the midst of the debate on the future of European missions in Mali and just a few days after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Mauritania, a NATO partner country (the only one in Africa), attended a working dinner at the NATO Summit to discuss the importance of the so-called Southern Flank in the new Madrid Strategic Concept.
The second leg of Albares’ trip, Senegal, will begin with a visit to the Instituto Cervantes center in Dakar, which was inaugurated by the Queen last December and represents the first headquarters of the Institute in Sub-Saharan Africa. The Minister of Foreign Affairs will also visit the Dakar airport, where he will meet with the detachment of the Ivory Air Force, and will travel to the arsenal of the port of Dakar, where the Civil Guard and the National Police collaborate in surveillance and security work.
During his stay in the capital of Senegal, Albares will hold a meeting with President Macky Sall at the Palace of the Republic and a lunch with the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Senegalese Abroad, Aissata Tall Sall. The visit coincides with the holding of political consultations between the two countries, which will be closed by the two ministers, and with Senegal’s presidency of the African Union.
According to Foreign Affairs, Spain and Senegal maintain a close collaboration in cultural, economic, migratory, commercial, development cooperation, agricultural or health-related aspects, such as, for example, the bilateral agreement on Social Security between the two countries (the Senegalese community in Spain is the largest in Sub-Saharan Africa in our country, with 71,000 inhabitants) or the projects of several Spanish companies in the fields of hydraulics, electrification of 50,000 homes, provision of technological equipment to airports and digitization of tourism in that country.
