By Michel Cousins.
Tripoli, 7 December:
Spanish foreign minister José García-Margallois is to lead a top-level ministerial and business delegation to Libya in . . .[restrict]mid-December. He will be accompanied by the Minister of Public Works and Transport, Ana Pastor, the Minister of Industry, Energy and Tourism, José Manuel Soria, and the Commerce Secretary Jaime Garcia-Legaz. It will be the highest level Spanish ministerial visit since Libya’s revolution.
Discussions with their Libyan counterparts, the Spanish ministers are expected to focus on transport, trade, housing, telecommunications, infrastraucture and water resources.
The business delegation will comprise 15 leading Spanish businesses, mainly from the infrastructure, oil and gas, and renewable energy sectors. The visit is expected to last just 24 hours and head to Tripoli only.
Following the change of government in Spain in December, there were plans for a Spanish ministerial delegation to visit Libya in May. However, this was delayed because of the General National Congress elections.
Spain’s former Foreign Minister, Trinidad Jimenez, was in Benghazi in June last year, but it was largely a political visit designed to demonstrate Spanish support for the struggle against the Qaddafi regime. [/restrict]
