President’s Visit to Spain

India and Spain share mutual healthy relations. The diplomatic ties between New Delhi and Madrid were established way back in 1956 with the opening of the Spanish Embassy in India. In 1958, the concurrent accreditation of our High Commissioner to London as Ambassador to Spain was established, followed by opening of a Mission in Madrid, which was headed by a Chargé d'Affaires. The first resident Ambassador was appointed in 1965.

In October 1997, Crown Prince Felipe visited India to inaugurate Expotenia, the Spanish industrial fair.

In February 2001, Crown Prince paid a visit to New Delhi as a Guest of Honour at India Engineering Trade Fair, held in New Delhi, in which Spain was a partner country. The then Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for the Economy Rodrigo Rato accompanied him.

Visits at the Head of Government level include the visit of Spanish Prime Minister Felipe Gonzalez in 1993. From the Indian side, the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi visited Madrid in 1988, followed by Narasimha Rao’s visit in 1992 and PM.

The Prime Minister of Spain Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero was on an official visit to New Delhi in July 2006.

In April 2009, President Pratibha Patil visited Spain to strengthen the mutual cooperation between the two countries.

Bilateral Relations
During her visit, President Patil held wide-ranging talks with the Spanish Prime Minister Zapatero. They decided to take their bilateral relationship to a higher level and agreed to fight terrorism in “all its forms and manifestations” and favoured the adoption of a global strategy against the menace at an early date.

President Patil and Zapatero also decided to have direct air links between them to strengthen tourism, economic, political and people-to-people relations.

Terrorism was a leitmotif and Zapatero was quoted as told the Indian President: “Terrorism is a scourge which the 20th century has left [us], a legacy which has to be destroyed.”

To work out the nitty-gritty, the Civil Aviation Authorities of the two countries will renegotiate the existing bilateral Air Services Agreement within three months. The two countries feel that a direct air link between them has acquired urgency in view of Spain opening up its Consulate-General in Mumbai next year which will include a Trade Office as well as a Tourism Office.

Political Dialogue
India and Spain decided to institutionalise the process of political dialogue between them at various levels and intensify their consultations and cooperation in international organisations and other multilateral for a.
The two leaders called upon the member states of the UN to make further concerted efforts to conclude the comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism.In defence sector, they agreed to explore the possibility of joint research and development.

The two leaders expressed their firm support for the work of the United Nations as a fundamental framework for multilateralism and agreed on the urgent need for a comprehensive reform of the United Nations.

Trade Agreement
Giving a major boost to their trade ties, India and Spain inked three key agreements in the fields of tourism, agriculture and renewable energy, paving the way for Spanish technology transfer and investments. India is keen to acquire renewable energy technology, especially in the wind and solar energy sectors, from Spain, which is considered the world leader in the fields. The world’s biggest photovoltaic solar cell-based plant is located in Spain.

Leading Indian wind power company Sulzon is already present in Spain and is seeking the Spanish assistance in the field.

In the tourism sector, Spain, which is the world’s number two destination after France for visitors, India will be seeking assistance of the European country in improving its tourism infrastructure. In the field of agriculture, India is keen to get food processing technology from Spain to utilise the surplus food items produced by it.

The bilateral trade between the two countries was growing, crossing $ 4.5 billion.

Spanish enterprises are known for executing large-scale infrastructure projects. The President invited them to make use of the opportunities India presents, in particular through small and medium enterprises.

Spain’s Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) globally was worth over €100 billion. Of this, India accounts for only €320 million, while India’s investment in Spain was almost twice that.