The Minister for Foreign Affairs, the European Union and Cooperation, José Manuel Albares, today, 23 March 2026, received his Senegalese counterpart, Cheik Niang, as part of the Senegalese President’s visit to Spain.
This meeting helps to strengthen bilateral relations, following the Spanish Prime Minister’s visit to Dakar in 2024 and the President of Senegal’s visit to Seville in June last year, during the International Conference on Financing for Development.
Albares highlighted the existing commitment to Senegal, particularly in the area of development cooperation. During the meeting, the new Partnership Framework for Sustainable Development was signed, fully aligned with the ‘Vision Senegal 2050’ National Transformation Agenda. This framework will remain in force until 2030 and provides for an initial financial allocation of 180 million euros, 40 million more than was disbursed in the previous period. Alongside traditional areas of work such as agriculture, water and sanitation, the new framework will focus on education and technical and vocational training.
At the same time, Albares conveyed to his counterpart concerns regarding the current situation of tension and conflict in the Middle East, and its global repercussions on markets, energy supplies and prices, and freedom of navigation, particularly in the Strait of Hormuz.
In the field of cultural cooperation, it is worth highlighting the establishment in Dakar, in 2019, of the first Cervantes Institute centre in sub-Saharan Africa. The centre is also promoting the learning of Spanish in other countries in the region, such as Côte d’Ivoire and Cape Verde. Spanish is an optional foreign language in Senegal’s secondary education system, with 350,000 students studying Spanish in the country.
Furthermore, Senegal is a priority country for development cooperation, as reflected in the Spain-Africa Strategy 2025–2028 and the Development Cooperation Act of 2023.
Also noteworthy are the political consultations between the two countries, held at ministerial level (the most recent took place in January 2026), as well as the presence of Senegalese society in key instruments of cooperation and political dialogue such as the Spain-Africa Advisory Council and the Africa Roundtable.