By taking this trip, José Manuel Albares underlines the importance that Spain assigns to a region facing multiple challenges like terrorism, poverty, climate change, food insecurity, the fight against human trafficking, the energy crisis and organised crime. This trip also served to step up Spain’s bilateral relations with each of the three countries visited.
The minister’s trip to Africa began in Niamey, the capital of Niger, where he was received by the President, Mohamed Bazoum. Subsequently, at a meeting with his counterpart, Hassoumi Massaoudou, the two ministers looked in detail at bilateral relations and cooperation. In this regard, they signed a new Country partnership Framework, which will span the period 2023-2027 and govern cooperation with this priority country for Spanish Cooperation, which has had a presence there since 2007. During his stay in Niger, José Manuel Albares visited the GAR-SI SAHEL project, headed up by the Guardia Civil with support from other European corps, and travelled to the hamlet of Ganguel, where Spanish Cooperation is working to improve the food security of local communities.
In Nigeria, Minister Albares and his counterpart, Geoffrey Onyeama, addressed such issues as energy, food insecurity, migration and the fight against terrorism. The Minister for Foreign Affairs also held a work meeting with the Minister for Petroleum Resources of Nigeria, Timipre Sylva, at which he was accompanied by representatives from the main Spanish companies operating in the sector. While also in Abuja, the capital of Nigeria, Minister Albares met with the Gambian diplomat Omar Touray – the new President of the Commission of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
The last leg of the trip to Africa by José Manuel Albares was a visit to Guinea-Bissau, where he met with his counterpart, Suzi Barboza, and was received by the country’s President, Umaro Sissoco Embaló, and by the Prime Minister, Nuno Gomes Nabiam, to whom he conveyed the decision by the Government of Spain to resume development cooperation with the country, which has been suspended for the last decade. In Bissau, the capital, the minister visited two projects currently financed by AECID funds at the Simao Mendes National Hospital.