At a time when Madrid and Rabat have already staged in all possible the reconciliation between Spain and Morocco After one diplomatic crisis that tension the relationships With our southern neighbor and the main commercial partner during eleven … months, the Minister of Foreign Affairs has preferred not to make a single reference to the West Sahara throughout the 96 folios that collect the ‘Strategy Spain-Africa 2025-2028’.
This document replaces the previous Africa Plan that has traditionally prepared every minister who has occupied the exterior portfolio. Exist in the ministry diverse opinions On the reasons of Albares to rename these instructions on the foreign policy that Spain will play over the next four years in the African continent.
Diplomats related to the minister defend that so far the Africa Plan only referred to the Sub -Saharan Africa region and left out to the Maghreb, while now with the new name the Spanish exterior action includes all of African countries. This version is the same as the minister at the beginning of the report, where he explains that “for Spain, the European country closest to Africa, the present and future of the continent, its progress towards an inclusive and sustainable development, its peace and its security, constitute vital objectives.”
The most critical diplomats with Albares, however, only see this initiative of the minister as “A reflection of your adamal”. «It should have followed the sequence and have been the IV Plan Africa. With this name change the minister intends to mark A new era covering the entire continent, ”explains a tanned diplomat in Africa, while appreciating that the previous plans“ also covered the African union, so Yes incorporated the multilateral dimension continental”. Therefore, he explains, this new minister’s document does not change anything: “It has no more practical dimension than the previous plans, since it does not require the peculiarities of relations with the Maghreb countries or the rest of North Africa.”
Albares has also varied the name of the ‘Española Cooperación 2024-2027’ Plan, which should have been called ‘Española Cooperation VI’ Plan. Beyond that the strategic plans to impose their seal, The omission of Western Sahara in this document has another meaning. To understand it, it is necessary to go back to April 2021, when the Government of Pedro Sánchez took Spain to an unprecedented immigration crisis, which also meant the closure of Melilla’s commercial customs, due to the anger of Morocco after the illegal entry in Spain of the leader of the Polisario Front, Brahim Galiwho was admitted to a Logroño hospital to be treated for Covid thanks to the authorization of the Government.
That Spain welcomed its number one enemy, did not sit well with Morocco, who only agreed to sit down to negotiate a new framework of diplomatic relations when from the Moncloa palace they would have had a great gesture towards Rabat: this approach occurred March 23, 2022when unilaterally the government declared Moroccan sovereignty over the West Sahara in a Letter sent to Rabatwhich meant a turn in a historical state position. This position was ratified a month later, with Pedro Sánchez’s visit to Mohamed VI.
“A hypersensitive matter”
From the 24 images that appear in the report, Minister Albares and Pedro Sánchez appear in seven of them. The remaining thirteen are of Spanish cooperation projects in Africa. The circumstance is also given that this new Albares document does not include any political map – for countries – of the continent, what several diplomats interpret as something premeditated “To avoid differentiating Western Sahara from Morocco”. “It is a hypersensitive issue, on which the minister will not give any concrete response because by force he has to move in ambiguity,” explains an ambassador to ABC. Sánchez appointed Albares to restore relations with Morocco and “he will do nothing that can erode them minimally.” In addition, he would have to give explanations about the turn in the Sahara position. That is why “this issue is delicate for him.” If it were not because this plan was finished writing in November, the side that the minister had not included the Sahara to not also anger the United States.
Another thing that has caught outdoor attention is that the process of elaboration of ‘Strategy Spain-Africa 2025-2028’ had to have meetings with actors such as Spanish civil society or African ambassadors in Spain, but Not with the representatives of the cities of Ceuta and Melilla, or those of the Canary Islands “Which is a nonsense.” “These actors were not provided a draft on which to pronounce or make contributions,” denounces another source. “This is completely opposite to how the planning or strategic instruments of cooperation are elaborated, or the previous Africa plans.”
The sources consulted are in tune with the claims of the Association of Spanish Diplomats (ADE) on the “alarming and incomprehensible Human Resources Management of Albares at the head of the Ministry.” “This is just an example of dysfunctionality that has been deliberately installed in the ministry when, possibly more than ever, current times demand the opposite,” concludes one of them.
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