The Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation, José Manuel Albares, begins a tour tomorrow that will take him to three key Gulf countries, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, in a new effort to promote solutions to the Middle East crisis.
With this new tour, Albares is resuming the commitment expressed during his recent visit to Lebanon and Iraq to visit the region more frequently to meet with the main players in the region with the intention of seeking solutions to the crisis in the Middle East. The first stop will be in Qatar, a key country in the current situation to end the crisis in Gaza. In the Qatari capital, he will hold a meeting with the Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sheikh Mohamed Bin Abdelrahman Al Zani, among other activities.
The minister will discuss how the two countries, Spain and Qatar, can collaborate to bring peace to the area. Albares also plans to take an interest in the latest contacts that the Qatari authorities are maintaining with the parties and to offer Spain's help in establishing a new dynamic of peace in the region. The minister's agenda will also include meetings with representatives of Spanish companies in the country and with the Qatari Businesswomen Association.
Spanish-Qatari cooperation in the promotion of Spanish culture and language will be addressed in a meeting with students and teachers of Spanish in that country, as well as in a visit to the Museum of Islamic Art, where the minister plans to make a brief tour of the section of art objects related to Spain.
Spain's proposals
The promotion of solutions to promote peace in the Middle East, through the implementation of the two-state solution, is also the main reason that will lead him to travel to Riyadh on the central day of this tour of the Gulf. There he will hold a meeting with his counterpart, Foreign Minister Faisal Bin Farhan Al Saud, with whom he will also discuss the situation in the region and to whom he will convey Spain's proposals for bringing peace to the region. The Saudi minister chairs the Contact Group of the League of Arab States and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, and in this capacity participated in the Regional Forum of the Union for the Mediterranean on November 27 in Barcelona.
Albares will discuss in Saudi Arabia the next steps to be taken within the Euro-Arab concertation to advance in the effective establishment of the Palestinian State, within the framework of the two-state solution advocated by Spain. In Riyadh, Albares will also continue to promote the growing bilateral economic agenda, in meetings with ministers of the economic area of the Saudi Government, as well as with representatives of Spanish companies active in the country.
Contacts with civil society and cultural and tourism exchanges are also part of the minister's program in Saudi Arabia, a country undergoing an accelerated modernization process within the framework of the "Vision 2030", which is to culminate in the Riyadh World Expo this year.
Last stage
The last stage, which closes this intense tour of the Gulf, will take Albares to Abu Dhabi. In the capital of the United Arab Emirates, the Spanish minister will hold a meeting with his Emirati counterpart, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, with whom he will also be able to contrast the reception given to Spanish proposals.
The Spanish-Emirati economic agenda will include, among other things, a visit to the state-owned renewable energy company Masdar and a meeting with the CEO of that company, Mohamed Jamil Al Ramahi, which is based in Madrid and covers Spain, North Africa, Europe, and Latin America.
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