After his fruitful visit to Portugal, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu visited Spain on 8 January 2021 upon the invitation of Arancha Gonzalez Laya, Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Union (EU) and Cooperation of Spain.

Minister Çavuşoğlu first met in Madrid with Onur Genç, CEO of Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA).

Later, Minister Çavuşoğlu held a meeting with Zurab Pololikashvili, Secretary General of the United Nations World Tourism Organisation and shared our successfully implemented “safe tourism” program during the pandemic, and also noted that Turkey had hosted 52 million tourists in 2019 becoming the 6th most favorite tourism destination in the World.

On the same day, Minister Çavuşoğlu was received by Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, and then met with his Spanish counterpart Arancha Gonzalez Laya.

After the meeting, the two Ministers held a joint press conference.

Minister Çavuşoğlu emphasized that we would further develop our excellent relations with friendly and ally Spain in every field, that we would hold the 7th Turkey-Spain Intergovernmental Summit in 2021 in Turkey, and that we aimed to increase our bilateral trade volume of 13 billion US Dollars before the pandemic up to 20 billion US Dollars.

Minister Çavuşoğlu also stated that the Alliance of Civilizations, which we launched together with Spain in 2005, became even more important in these times due to rising xenophobia and Islamophobia, that Spain supported Turkey’s EU membership process and had an unprejudiced and wise position regarding our relations with the EU.