Albares insists that Morocco is "the number 1 priority" in foreign policy and a bad relationship is something "harmful"

He trusts that a future work program will come out of the EU-CELAC summit and asks to close agreements with Chile, Mexico and Mercosur

MADRID, 13 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Minister for Foreign Affairs, the European Union and Cooperation, José Manuel Albares, insisted this Monday on the need to have good relations with Morocco since it is "the number 1 priority" in foreign policy and because not having it is "harmful" for the Spaniards, particularly for those who live in Ceuta, Melilla, the Canary Islands or Andalusia.

All the presidents and foreign ministers of the democracy have defined Morocco as "the number 1 priority of foreign policy", the minister maintained during a forum organized by Llorente and Cuenca on the occasion of the next Spanish Presidency of the EU.

The job of every foreign minister, he has abounded, is to "seek the best relationship" with the Alaouite kingdom, something that is a priority for Ceuta and Melilla, but also for the Canary Islands and Andalusia, he has defended. "Refusing to have a good relationship with Morocco is something very harmful for the Spanish" in general and for those who live in these territories in particular, he has assessed.

In this sense, he has defended that what the Government is doing now is to give a new "fit" to this relationship to "avoid those successive crises that seem to put us on the brink of a crisis that seems definitive" and has expressed his chest that It has managed to overcome "a very deep crisis at the top" without it having closed "falsely".

Now, Albares pointed out, the foundations have been laid for a new relationship based on mutual respect and not resorting to unilateral acts, and the first results are already being seen. Among them, he has highlighted the decrease in irregular arrivals of immigrants and the "thousands of deaths" that this allows to avoid in the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, as well as the increase in trade.

On the other hand, the Foreign Minister has once again justified the fact that King Mohamed VI did not receive the Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, during the High Level Meeting (RAN) on February 2, insisting that it is a summit at government level and claiming that 20 agreements were signed at it and there were 28 ministers, four times more than in the last one in 2015.

The summit was preceded by a telephone call between the Alaouite king and Sánchez, "to guarantee that there will be success", and not as on previous occasions, in which there was "a posteriori a protocol contact" and also Mohamed VI has invited Sánchez to an official visit, he recalled.

In this sense, Albares has highlighted that "there has not been any Spanish president who in such a short time has had so many meetings" with Mohamed VI, with whom he has already met twice, which demonstrates, in his opinion, a "relationship special" that supposes an added value.

Neighborhood relations, said the minister, are always complex and even more so when there are land borders involved, but "the results are there and we see how we are doing much better than a year and a half ago when we were submerged in a new crisis that is the story of the crises with Morocco".

On the other hand, Albares has reviewed the priorities that the Government has set for the Presidency of the EU in the second half of 2023, particularly with regard to Latin America, highlighting the importance of the bloc's summit with the Community of States of Latin America and the Caribbean (CELAC).

The minister has once again denounced that Europe has "turned its back on this region for too long" despite being the most "Eurocompatible" and has made it clear that Spain aspires to the summit not only being "a symbolic gesture" but also she leaves a work program with Latin America for the future.

Likewise, he has defended the need to close trade agreements with Chile, Mexico and Mercosur as a "sign of political commitment" with this region, beyond their economic importance. "Trade agreements have to enter into force now," she stressed.

Albares has also announced that a business forum is planned parallel to the EU-CELAC summit that will take place in July in Brussels, as well as a meeting of the Ministers of Economy and Finance of both blocs in Spain in which the idea is to "create a mass of funds" to be able to finance joint projects and to make Europe an attractive partner compared to "other actors" who are not as close to Latin America.