Spain is in favor of adapting the relationship with U.S to “a new world” more digital and work together for a Latin America prosperous, said Wednesday the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jose Manuel Albares, in Washington.
The two countries “want to do things together in Central America, working for the prosperity of Latin America,” said the minister during a ceremony organized by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).
“We have to see how to adapt our historical relationship, which has traditionally been based on security and defense and which must continue (…) to a very technological era in which there are new actors, new threats,” he said in a talk with the CSIS President, John J. Hamre.
Albares declared himself “very concerned” about Central America, “because all the other Latin American countries attract attention because the private companies are there, because they appear in the media” but the Central Americans, being “small” are not given attention, said Albares, who also recommends that the European Union put more focus on the area.
The United States is especially interested in Central America because many of the immigrants come from that region. President Joe Biden has set out to eliminate the “roots” of the exodus to the north, which, according to him, are extreme poverty, violence, corruption and the impact of climate change.
On Tuesday, Albares met with his American counterpart, Antony Blink, with whom he spoke above all about the crisis in Ukraine, after the deployment of some 100,000 Russian soldiers on the border with that country. Both agreed that in case of aggression there would be “an answer.”
This Wednesday, at a press conference, Albares insisted that at the moment “there is room for relaxation and dialogue.”
“We work for de-escalation, our will is there and it is clear, but if the dialogue does not succeed, there are things that are not acceptable, we cannot return to the past,” he stressed.
During his trip, Albares met with numerous personalities, including his Argentine counterpart, santiago cafiero, with whom it agreed to strengthen commercial ties and “advance in the implementation of the Action Plan for the Deepening of the Strategic Association for the 2021-2023 biennium, as the ideal tool to intensify the bilateral relationship,” according to a statement from the Argentine Foreign Ministry.
