Queen Letizia travels to Mauritania on her first cooperation visit to an Arab country

Queen Letizia's visit to Mauritania has put the little-known North African nation on the map. Atalayar was present in the capital, Nouakchott, a week before her trip to see first-hand the situation of a country whose strategic interests coincide with those of Spain at a decisive moment for regional stability.

Queen Letizia will arrive in the Islamic Republic this Tuesday from 19:00 local time (21:00 Spanish time) on a trip that will last until 2 June with the aim of checking on the ground the work of the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID), an agency attached to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation responsible for combating poverty and promoting sustainable human development.

AECID has been working with Mauritania for almost 30 years, since 1995. In 1998, the Technical Cooperation Office was created, but it was not until 2014 that the Country Partnership Framework was sealed with the signing of the VII Joint Commission for Cooperation between Spain and Mauritania, documents that established the main lines of work that have defined cooperation between the two countries.

AECID's work extends across the areas of health, governance and gender equality, rural development and food security. The importance lies in the fact that the stability of Mauritania is the stability of Spain, and the Government values positively the progress that this country has been making in recent years in various areas, standing out as one of the most solid states in the region.

Cooperation between Madrid and Nouakchott has become closer in the area of migration. The North African country contained irregular flows in 2021 with the interception of 128 canoes and 9,230 migrants, a volume 221% higher than the total number of migrants arriving in the Canary Islands from the Mauritanian coast, according to data from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. At the same time, the AECID has been developing a series of projects aimed at offering opportunities to Mauritanian youth so that they do not see illegal immigration as the only solution in a country where more than 15% of the population lives in extreme poverty.

The Sahel-Saharan country shares a northern border with Western Sahara and Algeria, and a southern border with Senegal and Mali. This geographical reality forces it to live wedged between the diplomatic schism between Rabat and Algiers and the chronic crisis in the Sahel region. However, the Islamic Republic is experiencing a period of some stability and development despite years of corruption, poor governance and low wages.

Mauritania has gas and natural reserves, in this case minerals, and has controlled the iron and copper mining industries for 60 years. These promising qualities have attracted investment from foreign players. Although it is the country with the smallest population and lowest GDP in the Maghreb, Mauritania has improved its economic indicators as a result of revenues from fishing, mining, oil and investments for the forthcoming exploitation of gold and gas deposits.

The Mauritanian Republic saw for the first time in 2019 a peaceful transfer of power between two civilian presidents, albeit from military backgrounds. The current president, Mohammed Ould Ghazouani, took over from former leader Mohamed Ould Abdelaziz, who was indicted for corruption, money laundering and illicit enrichment, in a process that received guarantees from the European Union and the African Union.

Queen Letizia is travelling in the company of the Secretary of State for International Cooperation, Pilar Cancela Rodríguez, on what will be her seventh trip in this area since 2015, her first to a Maghreb country after having visited El Salvador, Senegal, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Mozambique and Honduras again in the middle of the pandemic. The last visit was last November to Paraguay.