Ambassador of Spain to Qatar H E Belen Alfaro Hernandez
Doha: Ambassador of Spain to Qatar H E Belen Alfaro Hernandez affirmed that the visit of Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani to Spain epitomises the great state of bilateral relations.
The visit will push the relations to the next level, strengthen cooperation between the two sides in the domains of education, health, culture and science, and seek new joint projects for the forthcoming years.
In exclusive comments to QNA, H E Hernandez said that the visit of H H the Amir will be the only state visit that H M King Felipe VI of Spain will host this year. It indicates the importance Spain attaches to this visit, which will envisage several agreements and memoranda of understandings opening scope for joint action.
The ambassador noted the distinguished relations between her country and Qatar and said that the two countries’ governments have been working hand-in-hand to address common issues through mutual visits. The last of which was in 2021, when Qatar hosted two ministerial visits from Spain. The most recent one was led by Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation of Spain H E Jose Manuel Albares Bueno, in September . He held meetings with H H the Amir and the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs H E Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani.
Minister of State for Foreign Affairs H E Sultan bin Saad Al Muraikhi visited Madrid last October to meet his Spanish counterpart, she added.
During the last couple of months Qatar and Spain have signed multiple bilateral agreements including an Agreement on Cultural Cooperation and a Memorandum of Understanding in the field of Youth and Sports, the ambassador said.
She added that tourism between the two countries has resumed and since the reopening of the borders following the COVID-19 pandemic many Qatari residents have been able to
visit Spain.
The Spanish ambassador underlined that there are many areas where Spain and Qatar can increase their cooperation. She noted that Qatar is going to host the FIFA World Cup 2022 later this year, which means that there will be room to enhance work in the field of sports and everything regarding this major global event.
She also described the trade relations between the two countries as good, as Qatar is a strategic partner for Spain due to the Qatari supply of LNG to her country. Last year, bilateral trade partially recovered in face of the pandemic, although it is still far from the figures reached in 2019.
H E Hernandez said that the total value of trade between Spain and Qatar in 2021 was worth €990m, and Spanish exports to Qatar accounted for €349m, while Spanish imports from Qatar increased to €641m.
The ambassador said that Spanish exports to Qatar are well diversified and include machinery and mechanic tools, garments, furniture, and electric materials. On the other hand, given the fact that Spain is a country that depends on foreign energy supply, imports coming from Qatar were strongly concentrated in oil and gas (mainly LNG), as Qatar is one of the leading suppliers of gas, she added.
She said that Qatar is lately showing a bigger presence as investor in Spain in strategic sectors such as aviation, construction, distribution, finance, and energy. She said Qatari investment in Spain is related to the real estate sector, hotels, media, or long-term investments in big companies’ capital equity. Some of the most outstanding investments Qatar has achieved in Spain have resulted in it becoming the second largest investor of the Spanish Stock Exchange, long-term investor in capital equity such as IAG, Iberdrola, Colonial and Banco Santander Brazil. In addition, Qatar owns W Hotel in Barcelona, Intercontinental Hotel in Madrid, and Marina Port of Tarragona, she said.
She said that the Spanish investment in Qatar is related to big Spanish construction and infrastructure companies, IT firms, energy and water contractors or facility management and other services providers. On the one hand, Iberdrola stands out as one of the most promising investment operations carried out by Spanish companies in Qatar, which has set up its headquarters in Qatar to conduct research and investigation investments in Middle East, she pointed out.
She stressed that Spain and Qatar are regularly working together, not only to foster bilateral relations, but also to coordinate their positions in the multilateral arena at a time when the world is facing increasing challenges of an even more complex nature. The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted how Qatar and Spain worked together supporting the global efforts to donate vaccines.
Speaking about the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, the Spanish ambassador said: “I believe that Qatar is more than ready to deliver a very successful FIFA World Cup.”
