Pretoria - Juan Antonio Yanez-Barnuevo, the Spanish Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, is to arrive in South Africa this afternoon for the 7th Annual Bilateral Consultations between Spain and South Africa.
Yanez-Barnuevo will be hosted by Deputy Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Marius Fransman.
The pair are expected to discuss political cooperation, the strengthening of trade and investment, development cooperation and crime prevention, among other issues.
The two-day meeting will be held within the context of strengthening bilateral relations with Spain in support of South Africa's national priorities and foreign policy objectives by inter alia promoting high level consultations to discuss bilateral, regional, multilateral and other international issues of mutual concern.
South Africa-Spain Annual Consultations serve as the main forum for coordinating bilateral relations between South Africa and Spain. It was established in terms of a Memorandum of Understanding signed in December 2000 and provides the legal framework for bilateral consultations and cooperation.
Annual consultations between the two countries provide an opportunity for South Africa and Spain to explore the deepening of relations across the spectrum of South Africa's national priorities.
According to the Department of International Relations and Cooperation, South Africa and Spain enjoy cordial relations with regular political interaction at all levels of government and, promising trade and investments relations.
"The two countries are deeply committed to multilateralism with Spain having supported South Africa's bid to become a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council for 2011to 2012. Furthermore the two countries also share a common belief that UN governance should be restructured particularly the Security Council and global financial architecture," it said in a statement.
Although bilateral economic relations between the two countries were affected by the global financial and economic crisis and mirrored the trend in trade relations with the majority of South Africa's main trading partners in Europe, potential demand exists for South African goods across a wide range of sectors and over the medium to long term the Spanish market will remain one of the most promising and rapidly developing markets of the EU, and of major interest for South Africa.
