From Aidoghie Paulinus, Abuja
The Federal Government and the Kingdom of Spain, yesterday, met in Abuja to strategize on ways to tackle the insecurity in the country and maritime insecurity in the Gulf of Guinea.
The development took place during a bilateral meeting between the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama and his Spanish counterpart, Jose Manuel Albares Bueno.
Speaking during the meeting, Onyeama said both countries were close and deep partners.
Onyeama said: “Nigeria is one of the primary suppliers in the field of gas and petroleum to Spain and of course, with the challenges that we are facing today globally, this is a very important relationship and we also want to diversify our economic cooperation.
“Spain is a big country and a big player in the European Union (EU) and globally. So, we want to see increased trade as we also seek to diversify away from fossil fuels and to deal and cooperate in other economic fields.
“We are particularly delighted as we speak about security, not just military security, but also food security and Spain is a huge investor in Africa’s agriculture sector and has some big companies in Nigeria such as GB fruits and others that are doing very important and very productive work with Nigeria in the agricultural sector.
“So, we are delighted with the cooperation we are seeing in that area and also in the framework of the EU, we are delighted with the cooperation that we have in addressing insurgency and terrorism in the Sahel and this part of Africa. We will continue to work with you and with the global community, the UN the EU to definitely address the security challenges that we are facing in our sub region and we really appreciate the support and cooperation of your country.”
Onyeama also said the visit of President Muhammadu Buhari to Spain last year was a testament to the importance the two countries placed on their relations at the highest level.
Speaking earlier, Bueno said Nigeria was one of the great regional actors, the biggest economy in Africa and an absolute pillar of ECOWAS and sub-Saharan Africa.
“My visit is to give a new impetus to the relations that are already strong and has a milestone in the visit of President Muhammadu Buhari to Spain in which five MOUs were signed and three treaties on judicial cooperation. That visit was a success, thanks to the efforts of the Minister of Foreign Affair of Nigeria. My visit today will harp upon several issues first of which is bilateral cooperation. We have been working very successfully concerning migration. Nigeria attended the high level meeting on Regular and Work migration in September in the Spanish city of Malaga.
“Our economic cooperation is an absolute center of relations. Spain is one of the best clients of Nigeria in the world and very specifically, we are the second client of Nigeria in the world. We have been one of the largest buyers of gas and petroleum for a long time and we want to continue strengthening that energy relationship and to foster it.
“But our bilateral relations are getting deeper and more aspects have been covered. Security is a challenge to Nigeria and we want to offer our support for Nigeria in this rare challenge. We expressed our solidarity with Nigeria in the fight against terrorism, this is a threat that Spain knows very well because of our recent history. We commend the efforts of the Nigerian government to fight against violence and terrorism and at the same time, we want to help Nigeria to address the root causes of these conflicts,” the Spanish Minister said.