Miguel Ángel Moratinos, Spain's Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, has announced that a bilateral summit will be held with the countries of West Africa. He was speaking at the presentation of the 2008 CIDOB International Yearbook, which this year includes a special monographic section dedicated to Nigeria. Moratinos listed the achievements of Spain's new policy toward Africa, with the opening of six new embassies and cooperation offices and an increase in spending on cooperation that has gone from €150 million to almost €1 billion. He announced that more resources would be available for the new 2009-2012 Africa Plan and the General Cooperation Plan. He defended the new aid programmes against climate change and to promote food security as examples of a policy that goes beyond simple declarations, in order, he claimed, "to change the reality so that Africans may live in a better world". Chambas, the President of ECOWAS, praised Spain's role and Zapatero's policy on West Africa, and highlighted the intensification of relations with Nigeria, a country that is considered to be an example of democratic consolidation in the region. Spain's priorities were set down in the Plan Africa document, drafted in 2006 and which, the Minister declared, had been warmly welcomed by the African Nations, and he spoke of the excitement that he felt on being the first European representative to speak at the ministers’ meeting of the African Union in Addis Ababa last January.
Source: Fondation Cidob

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