'Qatar, Spain Bilateral Trade Around $1.5Bn'

(MENAFN- The Peninsula) Joel Johnson | The Peninsula

Doha, Qatar: Qatar and Spain have witnessed a positive trajectory growth in bilateral relations with a number of MoUs and agreements signed across several realms in addition to conducting strategic business dialogues.

Speaking to The Peninsula in an exclusive interview, H E Javier Carbajosa, Ambassador of the Kingdom of Spain to the State of Qatar said:“The bilateral trade is coming up. I think that we are around the $1,500m ($1.5bn) at this particular moment in coming up and we certainly have the willingness to promote commerce and trade between both sides.”

On June 21, Qatar and Spain took part in the first edition of the strategic business dialogue in Madrid, which was attended by the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, H E Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani, and the Minister of Industry and Commerce, H E Sheikh Mohammed bin Hamad bin Qassim Al Abdullah Al Thani.

The Ambassador remarked that the business dialogue was“extremely useful” and identified core areas including tourism, artificial intelligence, energy, and infrastructures.

In terms of investment, Ambassador Javier noted the ties between the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) and the Sovereign Fund in Spain (COFIDES) are robust.

“I will be receiving shortly a delegation from COFIDES here so that actually both parties can keep on talking about the possibilities to keep on working together. Trade and investment are an important part. We are also working with Qatar on an agreement in order to promote and protect reciprocal investment in both our countries,” he said.

The envoy highlighted the upcoming Summit on Wednesday, October 16, 2024 in Brussels between the GCC countries and the European Union stating that“Qatar is holding the rotational presidency of the GCC countries” and discussions related to political geostrategic issues along with trade and investments will be convened.

H E Carbajosa emphasised that tourism is one of the fields in which Spain and Qatar exchange innovative ideas. He said that the launch of the road map for tourism this month boosts the sector with the target of 6 million visitors by 2030 coupled with the“enormous success” of FIFA 2022.

Accentuating the leisure industry in Spain, the official said,“I think we are the 2nd or the 3rd with more UN-declared sites of interest from the UNESCO point of view and last year we received 82 million tourists.”

Spain's tourism, however, approximates 13 percent of its GDP and has been contributing to the Spanish economy to a large extent.

Expressing concerns regarding the ongoing conflicts in the Middle East and Spain's stance to de-escalate the war, the Ambassador said“This is one of the issues of which both our leadership maintain a very intense conversation just a few days ago. The Prime Minister of Qatar and our President of Government held a conversation on the phone talking about the current situation and the need to avoid an escalation.”

“Qatar has been deploying extraordinary efforts of mediation that so far have not been crowned with success. Although we understand that Qatar is insisting on these efforts and we appreciate that very much. And as you said, Spain and Qatar share many things. We both have insisted on the need for a ceasefire. We insist on the need to release the hostages and the prisoners, he said.

The envoy underlined that the two-state solution is the only way to move forward.“it is important to organise an international peace conference in order to push that aim and objective forward.”

Last month, H M King Felipe VI of Spain received the credentials from the first full Palestinian Ambassador H E Husni Abdel Wahed in Madrid.

The Ambassador added,“We recognise the Palestinian state and have relations with Israel because we do believe that the recognition of two states in the region living peacefully next to one another is the only solution to the situation in the Middle East, and until the moment that you don't tackle the Palestinian issue and the only way to do so is the recognition of Palestinian State.”

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