The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation travels to U.S.
On the 14th of December, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, Miguel Ángel Moratinos, traveled to Washington to meet with his US counterpart, Hillary Clinton.
This trip, which has been organised within the context of contacts in advance of the Spanish Presidency of the EU, has the dual objective of jointly dealing with matters on the bilateral agenda and the main issues of interest in relation to the development of the transatlantic agenda during the Spanish Presidency, as well as other priority issues for the coming first half of 2010.
The president of the government, Jose Luis Zapatero, meets with the president of the United States, Barack Obama
The meeting this Sunday in Prague marks a new era in bilateral relations.
“This is a new moment in time in the relations between the United States and Spain,” declared President Zapatero as both appeared briefly before the press preceding their meeting. “It makes me happy to be able to call you a friend”, said President Obama after shaking hands before the encounter that took place in Prague on the fringes of the summit between the European Union and the United States.
Zapatero especially stressed the “historic reach” of the ideas that President Obama defends, whose “election and first steps as president are filled with hope, filled with the future”. For his part, President Obama, apart from already considering President Zapatero as a friend, praised him emphasizing that “he does not just understand clearly the extraordinary influence of Spain in the world, but he also takes those responsibilities on very seriously”. “I believe that we will be able to establish that which is already a strong relation between the two countries” and “we can make it even stronger”, said President Obama, who welcomed the “opportunities to cooperate in each of a series of themes in the coming years”.
Spain and the United States at the NATO Summit
On April 3 and 4 of 2009, the most recent NATO summit was held in the cities of Strasbourg, Kehl, and Baden-Baden. These three cities on of French-German border admitted NATO, 60 after its founding, in order to draw the outlines of the alliance’s vision for the future and to shape the civil and military contributions of each of the member countries to the new strategy of U.S. President Barack Obama in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The United States already announced the deployment of 21,000 soldiers that will join the 36,000 that are already deployed in Afghan territory. For its part, Spain has committed itself to send one battalion (450 forces) as well as 40 civil guards to guarantee security in the next presidential elections that will take place on August 20.
In the meeting in Strasbourg, nevertheless, not only the sending of more troops was committed to. The United States has insisted that Spain contributes from the necessary funds to the mission of NATO in Afghanistan, first to guarantee the presidential elections and second, to help form the Afghan Armed Forces.
The Spanish government has also announced that it will set aside 5 million Euros for these elections as well as 4 million Euros for the training of the Afghan Armed Forces.