Foreign relations of Spain

After the return of democracy following the death of General Franco in 1975, Spain's foreign policy priorities were to break out of the diplomatic isolation of the Franco years and expand diplomatic relations, enter the European Community, and define security relations with the West.

As a member of NATO since 1982, Spain has established itself as a major participant in multilateral international security activities. Spain's EU membership represents an important part of its foreign policy. Even on many international issues beyond western Europe, Spain prefers to coordinate its efforts with its EU partners through the European political cooperation mechanisms.

With the normalization of diplomatic relations with North Korea in 2001, Spain completed the process of universalizing its diplomatic relations.

Spain has maintained its special identification with Latin America. Its policy emphasizes the concept of an Iberoamerican community, essentially the renewal of the historically liberal concept of hispanoamericanismo (or hispanism as it is often referred to in English), which has sought to link the iberian peninsula with Latin America through language, commerce, history and culture. Spain has been an effective example of transition from dictatorship to democracy, as shown in the many trips that Spain's King and Prime Ministers have made to the region. Spain maintains economic and technical cooperation programs and cultural exchanges with Latin America, both bilaterally and within the EU. The relations with Cuba were always good, even during the strongly anti-communist dictatorship of Francisco Franco. This is a historic cause of little frictions with the United States.

Spain also continues to focus attention on North Africa, especially on Morocco. This concern is dictated by geographic proximity and long historical contacts, as well as by the two Spanish exclave cities of Ceuta and Melilla on the northern coast of Africa. While Spain's departure from its former colony of Western Sahara ended direct Spanish participation in Morocco, it maintains an interest in the peaceful resolution of the conflict brought about there by decolonization. These issues were highlighted by a crisis in 2002, when Spanish forces evicted a small contingent of Moroccans from a tiny islet off Morocco's coast following that nation's attempt to assert sovereignty over the Spanish island.

Meanwhile, Spain has gradually begun to broaden its contacts with Sub-Saharan Africa. It has a particular interest in its former colony of Equatorial Guinea, where it maintains a large aid program. More recently Madrid has sought closer relation with Senegal, Mauritania, Mali and others to find solutions for the issue of illegal immigration to the Canary Islands.

Spain is also known as a broker in the Middle East. In its relations with the Arab world, Spain frequently supports Arab positions on Middle East issues. The Arab countries are a priority interest for Spain because of oil and gas imports and because several Arab nations have substantial investments in Spain.

Spain has been successful in managing its relations with its two European neighbours, France and Portugal. The accession of Spain and Portugal to the EU has helped ease some of their periodic trade frictions by putting these into an EU context. Franco-Spanish bilateral cooperation is enhanced by joint action against Basque ETA terrorism. Ties with the United Kingdom are generally good, although the question of Gibraltar remains a sensitive issue.

Today, Spain is trying to expand its limited relations with Far East nations like Philippines, Vietnam, the People's Republic of China and Japan.

Disputes - international:
Gibraltar issue with the United Kingdom; Spain controls five places of sovereignty ("plazas de soberanía") on and off the coast of Morocco - the coastal enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla, which Morocco contests, as well as the islands of Peñon de Alhucemas, Peñon de Vélez de la Gomera, and Islas Chafarinas; by the Vienna Treaty of 1815, Spain recognized the Portuguese claims over Olivenza as "legitimate", but didn't agree to return the place to Portugal. The historic disputes with this country about the government of the Savage Islands in the Atlantic Ocean disappeared in recent times.

Illicit drugs:Spain is a key European gateway country for Latin American cocaine and North African hashish entering the European market. It is also a consumer of south-west Asian heroin.

Bilateral relations

With France: Spain has very good relations with France, especially since March 14, 2004, when Zapatero was elected Prime Minister of Spain. One of his objectives is maintaining and strengthening good relations with the "European Friends". The police of Spain and France are now cooperating to suppress the terrorist group ETA.

With Germany: Spain has very good relations with Germany, especially since March 14, 2004, when Zapatero was elected Spanish Prime Minister. The Prime Minister's relationship with the present Chancellor, Angela Merkel, is less close but remains civil.

With Portugal: Relations between Portugal and Spain are also good. They cooperate in the fight against drug trafficking and tackling forest fires (common in the Iberian Peninsula in summers), for example. These close relations are facilitated by similar governments: the government of conservative Spanish PM José María Aznar coincided with the government of also conservative José Manuel Durão Barroso in Portugal; today, both José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero of Spain and José Sócrates of Portugal are socialists.Portugal also holds claim to the disputed territory of Olivença in the Portuguese-Spanish border.

With United States: Under the government of José María Aznar, Spain developed exceptionally good relations with the USA, in great part due to the personal empathy between Aznar and George W. Bush. Following Zapatero's decision to withdraw Spanish troops from Iraq immediately after the 2004 general elections, relations predictably soured, although important commercial links remained intact.

With Latin American countries: During Aznar's government, Spanish relations with some Latin-American countries like Mexico, Venezuela and Cuba got worse, but were exceptionally good with others like Colombia, Dominican Republic and several Central America small republics. Zapatero's victory in the 2004 general elections changed this setting. Today, relations with Venezuela are quite good, which has caused an upset with the United States, who have been in recent conflicts with Venezuela via both countries presidents and Venezuelas growing relations with "Anti-American Nations", such as Cuba, China, and several other nations including Russia and Islamic Middle Eastern countries. Relations with Cuba have historically been better.

Besides Venezuela, the Spanish government has strongly increased its relations in recent years with Brazil, Argentina and Chile. A diplomatic crisis with Bolivia in 2005 due to a misunderstanding was quickly resolved by Zapatero and Spain became the first European country visited by Evo Morales in January 4, 2006. However, there remain problems surrounding the exploitation of oil and gas fields in the country by Spanish corporations like Repsol.

ee also

* Diplomatic missions of Spain
* List of diplomatic missions in Spain

Further reading

* cite journal
quotes =
last = Gillespie
first = Richard
authorlink =
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date =
year = 2007
month = April
title = Spanish foreign policy: party alternatives or the pursuit of consensus?
journal = Journal of Southern Europe and the Balkans
volume = 9
issue = 1
pages = 29–45
doi = 10.1080/14613190701216995
id =
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* cite journal
quotes =
last = Iglesias-Cavicchioli
first = Manuel
authorlink =
coauthors =
date =
year = 2007
month = Summer/Fall
title = A Period of Turbulent Change: Spanish-US Relations Since 2002
journal = The Whitehead Journal of Diplomacy and International Relations
volume = 8
issue = 2
pages = 113–129
issn =
doi =
id =
url = http://www.isn.ethz.ch/pubs/ph/details.cfm?v21=107270&lng=en&ord61=alphaNavi&ord60=PublicationDate&id=55621
language =
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