Buenas tardes.
Bona tarda.
Boas tardes.
Arratsalde on.
Good afternoon.
Wina kuché.
Excellencies Ministers and authorities.
Dear colleagues and members of the diplomatic and consular corps.
Queridas amigas españolas, queridos amigos españoles.
Dear Sierra Leonean friends.
When I learnt, after being appointed as the Ambassador of Spain to Sierra Leone on April 2024, that a reception had never been held here on our National Day, I was determined to change that. One of the commitments I made was to do it on a regular basis, as well to increase the frequency of trips to the country and to establish specific initiatives to reinforce our bilateral relations. I am happy to have been able to honour my word. This is my fifth visit to the country, gladly made to celebrate our National Day in Sierra Leone for the second time. I have personally presented initiatives in the areas of digitalization and startups, gastronomic diplomacy and food security and Spanish language and culture and we are already implementing them in collaboration with the Sierra Leonean authorities and civil society, enhancing a relation that was already good but is now excellent and thus contributing to develop its enormous potential. We will continue to do so in the future.
I cannot start without referring to the situation in the Gaza. In my last year's speech, I already referred to the humanitarian crisis, the unbearable tragedy and the spiral of death and devastation suffered by the Palestinian people since October 2023, which had already killed more women and children than any other armed conflict in recent history. A year later and two years after the start of this barbarity, which has been qualified by the United Nations as a genocide, the situation in Gaza is no longer just a humanitarian issue, but a question of humanity. While the recognition of the Palestinian State, already made by Spain over a year ago and followed by several countries in recent weeks, is urgent, it is even more urgent to be a Palestinian people in the State that we recognise. Last Monday was a day of hope due to the signing of the Middle East Peace Plan in Egypt and we therefore congratulate the mediators, whose work Spain has supported from the outset. But a just and lasting peace cannot be built only on the silence of cannons, but on the voices of justice and humanity. We must now take further steps to extend this path, consolidate the ceasefire and make it permanent, as well as to rebuild Gaza and offer a future to the Palestinian people. We must pave the way for a definitive peace based on the two-state solution. As our President, Pedro Sánchez, pointed out before the United Nations last September, “history will be unforgiving to those who remain silent or look away".
Spain is not remaining silent, nor is it looking away. We remain coherent. We are saying the same thing in Gaza as we are in Ukraine, where peace must finally be restored. After three years and a half of conflict, we continue to emphasise that Russia's aggression constitutes an unacceptable violation of international law. Together with its European Union partners, Spain defends that any peace agreement must be firmly rooted in respect for international law and the United Nations Charter and rejects any solution that would legitimise violence or the modification of borders by force.
Sierra Leone is a friend of Spain and a country of peace. We are counting on you, our Sierra Leonean sisters and brothers, to work together to build a safe world, in accordance with international law and international humanitarian law. In this context, multilateral cooperation remains key in our relation. We firmly believe that global and security affairs must be tackled in a coordinated manner and we are committed to multilateralism as the most effective method to do it. This is why we supported the candidacy of Sierra Leone to become a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council in 2024 and 2025. We are glad to witness our Sierra Leonean friends raising the African voice in its debates and we congratulate President Bio for having also assumed the Presidency of ECOWAS some months ago.
In this field, I want to clearly emphasize Spain's commitment to Human Rights and, in particular, to the effective equality between women and men and to the protection and promotion of the rights of women and girls. Spain, as a member of the United Nations Human Rights Council and as a feminist country, is actively collaborating with the authorities and civil society in Sierra Leone, which faces many challenges and whose progress we want to support.
In the bilateral field, Spain is determined to reinforce relations with Sierra Leone and to contribute to the stability and to the sustainable development of the country. We have always supported Sierra Leone, even during the worst of times, such as the Ebola crisis between 2014 and 2016, and we hope to strengthen our common history in the years to come. Spain is committed to the West African region, with which we have important geographical, human and commercial ties. This is reflected in our External Action Strategy 2025-2028, in the Spanish Cooperation Master Plan 2024-2027, which includes, for the first time, West Africa and the Sahel as one of its priority regions, and in the Spain-Africa Strategy 2025-2028, which pays particular attention to West African countries.
As I mentioned at the beginning of my speech, we have identified specific areas in which we are beginning to develop the enormous potential of our excellent bilateral relations. In the framework of this National Day, we have promoted, with the collaboration of Caritas, the Fundación Maga and the national and local authorities, an initiative on Spanish gastronomy and food security in Bureh Town which I personally visited yesterday. In November, in collaboration with the United Nations System and with my good friend Chief Minister Sengeh, we will celebrate the first edition of our Startups Week, which aims to contribute to the development of the ecosystem of startups with a special focus on the empowerment of young persons and women. Finally, we are designing Spanish language teaching programs that we hope to offer in the near future –especially for the tourism sector, in which Sierra Leone has considerable potential and Spain offers added value and can provide with its global leadership and expertise. Sierra Leone has participated in the last editions of FITUR, the international tourism fair that is held annually in Madrid, and we want to encourage redoubling our efforts to establish permanent bilateral collaboration in this sector.
Regarding migration, I firmly assure Spain's willingness to collaborate with Sierra Leone in the fight against human trafficking and to achieve better coordination in order to establish channels for safe, orderly and regular migration. For Spain, migration is not a source of fear and threat, but of hope and opportunity. Let us not forget that Spain was also, at one time, a nation whose nationals emigrated to other regions in search of opportunities. Today, our progress and strong economic situation owe much to the migrants who came to build their lives. Our country, which currently has the highest economic growth in the European Union, integrates migrants and allows them to participate in our progress, also in terms of culture, diversity and encounter. To do this, we must manage this phenomenon jointly with the States of origin and transit in a safe manner and by combating the actions of organised mafias.
To achieve our objectives, we will be able to count on allies such as our Honorary Consul, Antoine Yazbeck, a Spaniard at heart who provides us with invaluable assistance. También contamos con la valiosa comunidad española, cuyo compromiso, diversidad y dinamismo son el fiel reflejo de la riqueza de nuestro país. And, of course, we will be able to count on our European partners, whom I am always grateful to for their welcome and with whom we coordinate closely as Team Europe.
Thank you all for your welcome and for contributing to this new and prosperous stage in the friendship between Spain and Sierra Leone.
Gracias.
Gràcies.
Grazas.
Eskerrik asko.
Thank you.
Plenti tenki.