Nigeria and Spain have pledge to boost the bilateral relations between the two countries.
The pledge was made when the Spanish Foreign Minister, Jose Manuel Albares on his first visit to Nigeria paid a courtesy call on the Nigerian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Geoffrey Onyeama, in Abuja, Nigeria.
While receiving his Spanish counterpart, Mr. Onyeama says Nigeria and Spain has had laudable and cordial relations.
He also stressed the high economic influence of Spain in the European Union, EU.
“Spain is a big player in the European Union and globally, and so we want to see increase trade as we also seek to diversify away from fusel fuels and gas, to deal and cooperate in other economic fields,” he said.
Mr Oyeama adds that Nigeria was open to bilateral relations in the areas of military and food security.
“We are delighted with the cooperation that we have in addressing insurgency and terrorism in the Sahel, in this part of Africa and we’ll continue to work together with you and the global community, UN and the European Union to address definitively the security challenges that we are facing in our sub-region,” he said.
The Spanish Foreign Minister, Jose Manuel Albares who is the first Spanish Minister to visit Nigeria in thirteen years said his visit was to give impetus to President Muhammadu Buhari’s visit to Spain in 2022, where a Memorandum of Understanding, MoU, and treaties on judicial cooperation were signed.
Mr. Albares said as one of Nigeria’s major oil clients “our bilateral relations are getting deeper and more aspects are being covered. Very recently, an agreement between the University of Lagos and the embassy of Spain has allowed to open a professor of Spanish language in the University and security, which is a common challenge to Nigeria and Spain and we want to offer our support to Nigeria in this rare challenge.”
The Spanish Foreign Minister also presented a posthumous award (national honor) from the King of Spain to the late Ambassador Ademola Seriki for his excellent work during his time as ambassador to Spain.
Confidence Okwuchi
