Felipe VI offers to Africa Spain’s support to face its big challenges.

King Felipe VI today offered to the African leaders gathered at the African Union Summit in Ethiopia, Spain’s total support in order to face “side by side” some challenges that are now universal, such as extremism and intolerance, the fight against poverty and economic impulse.

The Ebola crisis has been the last great test which, according to the Spanish monarch, the continent has had to pass through, showing, in his judgement, “the extent to which the great challenges of our time have become global and need global commitments”. It was the first time a Spanish Head of State would attend a summit of the AU, which comprises 54 African countries, in company of the Spanish Minister of Industry, José Manuel Soria.

Together with Ebola, terrorism dominated the topics of the sessions, as well as the bilateral meetings Felipe VI held throughout his presence in Ethiopia, in a tightly packed programme.

The UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, sent him his condolences for the death of a Spanish soldier with the FINUL peace keeping force in Lebanon, and thanked him for Spain’s participation in peace keeping missions.

At a reception for the Spanish community in Addis Ababa, a minute’s silence was also used to pay homage to the fallen soldier who died in an Israeli attack against the Lebanese Shiite group, Hezbollah.

The Spanish King expressed his solidarity to the Egyptian President, Abdelfatah al Sisi, in the wake of the latest terrorist attacks in the Sinai, in which scores of lives were lost, and both leaders agreed with the necessity to pursue the International fight against terrorism.

Felipe VI had contact with both leaders and also with the Presidents of Tunisia and Mauritania, as well as with the Prime Minister of Ethiopia, after attending the inauguration of the 24th Ordinary Assembly of the African Union, held in its imposing headquarters in Addis Ababa,

There he did not make any speech, but at the end of the day he had the opportunity to address the leaders during the dinner offered by the Ethiopian Prime Minister. In his vote of thanks, presented in English but with passages in French and winding up in Amharic, the Ethiopian language, he gave the fundamental outlines of the commitment Spain wishes to convey to the continent, beyond which more than ten billion dollars has been committed in Spanish aid for development in the last decade. “Africa can, undoubtedly, count on Spain as an allied nation, solid and trustworthy”, the King proclaimed, as he ascertained the “firm and decided commitment” of Spain towards Africa, sustained on three fundamental pillars.

These are, in the area of peace and security, to support “African solutions to African conflicts”, to contribute to the advancement of democracy and human rights and to push for an “economic partnership” that would lead African peoples to prosperity, he said.

The King assured that Spain wishes to help “actively and constructively make Africa able to face and manage its own challenges against continental peace and security”, and he made it clear that it would serve their “interests” not only before the EU but also at the UN, as a Non-Permanent Member of the Security Council. This act, he explained, is consequent upon the majority vote Spain received from the African continent to be able to sit at the United Nations Security Council.

“Side by side, we shall find solutions to the big challenges of out time: climate change, international terrorism, war against poverty”, he emphasised, because “extremism, intolerance and barbarism threaten the security of all societies”, he pointed out.

It was the first time Felipe VI was visiting Ethiopia and sub-Saharan Africa since the beginning of his reign, and he did not forget to mention the “renewed vigour” of a region that knows itself and wants to be the total owner of its own destiny”, which believes in dialogue and international co-operation and which, besides, “grows economically”. In this respect, he highlighted that Spanish investments in Africa, which have multiplied in the last decade, advance at “at good rhythm”, even if he admitted that “much still has to be done”.

He also “proudly” made emphasis on the fact that Spain has troops deployed to peace keeping missions in seven African countries (Mali, Senegal, Central African Republic, Gabon, Somalia, Djibouti and Cape Verde) and he considered Spanish commitment to Africa to be “one more bridge between Africa and Spain”. The Ethiopian Prime Minister showered praises on the King of Spain, describing the country as a “genuine and durable” partner.