Spain seeks to boost its trade and strategic relationship with Egypt

The Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, Arancha González Laya, visited Cairo on Saturday with the aim of promoting economic and strategic relations between Spain and Egypt in a complex context in the Middle East region.

On her first visit as foreign minister to Egypt, González Laya did not want to fail to express the importance she attaches to a country that she feels from her position as a "frustrated archaeologist" and which she is now trying to place at the top of Spain's agenda of interests in the eastern Mediterranean.

The minister met the President of Egypt, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, and his counterpart, Sameh Shukri, as well as the Secretary of the Arab League, Ahmed Aboul Gheit.

"We have been able to examine the state of relations between Spain and Egypt, relations that are good but we want them to be excellent", the minister said at a press conference with Shukri, in a small palace in the centre of Cairo.

To this end, the minister indicated that they have decided to work in the area of "the economy, investment and trade" and announced that next year a "major Spanish-Egyptian business forum" will be held to give shape to this "desire to improve our economic relations".

The visit also touched on thorny issues, on the one hand, the ongoing issue of human rights in a country where, according to organisations such as Human Rights Watch, there have been tens of thousands of politically motivated arrests in recent years.

Although the issue did not come up at the joint press conference, the minister later told Spanish journalists that the subject was put on the table.

"I put on the table all the issues that come to us apart from activists, human rights, political rights, social rights, all those cases that we collect and in this case there were, which I put on the table for the consideration of my counterparts," she said.

He said this has to be "the rule, not the exception. But it is also the rule and it is a rule that I impose on myself (...) which is to keep a certain amount of discretion," he added, calling for "discreet diplomacy".

Another pending issue is the compensation to Naturgy by the Egyptian Government in exchange for the assets of Union Fenosa Gas in Egypt, specifically the Damietta plant, which was the subject of an award in favour of the Spanish company and the Italian company ENI, and of a subsequent agreement between the three parties last February.

However, the agreement, which provides for compensation of $600 million to Naturgy, could not be implemented because of the coronavirus and was terminated by the Spanish company in April. The minister said that she had discussed this matter with President Al-Sisi and stressed that all parties agreed on the need for an agreed solution.

"What the Egyptian President has conveyed to me is his desire that this issue can also be resolved through negotiation", he said. In that sense, he expressed his "wish" that there could be a solution in the "next few weeks".

The importance of Egypt as a regional player was one of the issues addressed by the minister at her meetings, particularly in the context of instability in Libya.

González Laya said that "the turbulence in the eastern Mediterranean" from Spain's point of view "can only be responded to through dialogue, never through unilateralism, and always through negotiation".

"Egypt is a great country and actor that has a Middle East, Mediterranean and African dimension," he said, highlighting its "great role" both in the region and in the Mediterranean.

For his part, Shukri said at the press conference that Spain has a "pioneering position" in relations between the two sides of the Mediterranean. He also said that Spain plays a 'role in strengthening relations' with the European Union.

The Spanish minister stressed the need to strengthen ties with Egypt within the Community through neighbourhood agreements and cooperation mechanisms in the Mediterranean.