Spain offers the new Tunisian government political and migratory support

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Arancha González Laya, today conveyed to the new Tunisian government Spain's willingness to strengthen its political and economic cooperation and to ensure that young people have job opportunities that will dissuade them from fleeing to Europe through the migratory mafias.

González-Laya arrived in Tunisia in the early afternoon as part of a tour that will also take him to Libya next Monday. The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Migration and Tunisians Abroad, Othman Jarandi, welcomed him at Carthage International Airport, where they held a brief meeting. Later, they held a second meeting with a lunch in a hotel in the capital with both delegations in which they reviewed the main issues of bilateral interest.

She is the European Prime Minister meeting with the new Tunisian Government, which was approved last Sunday, the third in the last ten months as a result of the deep political and social crisis in which the country is immersed.

"The new government is an opportunity for Spain to reaffirm its political, economic and cooperation commitment to a friendly country with which we have strong ties. We want to strengthen them at a time when we have to put political energy back into the Mediterranean family", the minister told journalists after her first meeting with Jarandi.

González Laya, who will meet this afternoon with Tunisian President Kaïs Said, stressed the need to strengthen the European Union's collaboration with its southern Mediterranean neighbours "at a time of turbulence in this region", particularly in Libya. "Spain, a committed Mediterranean country, wants to promote relations between the EU and the countries of the Mediterranean, and this is a good way of doing so", he said. He stressed that one of the priorities of Spanish cooperation with Tunisia is to support young people and training so that Tunisians can find work.

According to González Laya, this is the way to help "build a strong Tunisian economy and also to put an end to this scourge that both Tunisia and Spain are facing, which are the networks of human traffickers who take advantage of the weakness and need of many young people to make a profit".

"In this, Tunisia, like Spain, we are going hand in hand, seeking to generate opportunities for young people other than by profiting from the mafias", added the minister during her first stay in the Maghreb country since she took office last January.

As well as agreeing with the new government, the head of Spanish diplomacy arrives at a time when both countries have their borders closed due to the coronavirus. During her stay in the Tunisian capital, González Laya is going to meet with Spanish businessmen and women representing the country's civil society, as well as taking part in a tribute to the victims of the attack on the National Museum of El Bardo in 2015, which killed 22 people, including two Spanish tourists.

González Laya travelled to Tunisia accompanied by the Spanish ambassador to this country, Guillermo Ardizone, and the Director General for the Maghreb, the Mediterranean and the Middle East, Eva Martínez.