Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
Monday, October 27, 2008
All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2008.
José Antonio Gurriarán
MADRID, Oct 27 (IPS) – The Spanish government is taking strong diplomatic actions, calling on its fellow members of the European Union, Latin American leaders, Asian nations and even the United States presidential candidates, with the aim of not being left out of the financial anti-crisis summit scheduled for Nov. 15 in Washington.
Spain was not included in U.S. President George W. Bush’s invitation to the governments of the world’s leading economies and the larger emerging countries from the developing South — a decision seen by Spain as a veto against the socialist government of José Luís Rodríguez Zapatero.
Although no one in the White House admits or has even implied it, the Zapatero administration as well as the rightwing opposition and the vast majority of Spain’s citizens are convinced that this is Bush’s way of retaliating against Zapatero’s decision to withdraw the country’s troops from the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq, as soon as the socialist prime minister took office in 2004.
They reject the official argument that Spain was not invited because of its economic and industrial problems, as today Spain is the world’s eighth largest economy, the third leading exporter — after the U.S. and France — and home to two of the world’s top 16 banks. Neither are they convinced by the claim that the meeting was convened in the framework of the Group of 20 (G20).
The G20 was formed in 1999 by the Group of Eight most powerful nations in the world, plus the large emerging economies and the European Union (EU) as a bloc, in response to the financial crises of the late 1990s.
The group regularly assembles the finance ministers and central bank presidents of Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Britain, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, the United States, and Turkey, and the heads of the EU and the European Central Bank.
Zapatero’s decision to pull out of Iraq — a radical shift from the foreign policy of his conservative predecessor, José María Aznar — earned him the manifest hostility of the U.S. president, who since then has refused to travel to Spain, invite his Spanish counterpart to visit the U.S., or even meet with him officially when they have crossed paths at international summits.
The most Zapatero has obtained from Bush is a lukewarm ”hello,” as occurred when they came face to face in Turkey.
”I will fight to be there; I’ll do it because everybody knows that you can’t win a battle if you don’t fight it. The eighth economic power cannot remain silent, especially when it has so much to contribute,” Zapatero stressed to a group of reporters, including IPS, after appearing in Congress to discuss the national budget.
The Spanish government hopes to garner more support to pressure Bush, and planned take the opportunity to further this aim at the Seventh Asia-Europe Summit, inaugurated Friday Oct. 24 in Beijing and which continued over the weekend.
When he left for China he had already obtained the support of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who occupies the six-month rotating presidency of the EU; the Portuguese head of the European Commission, José Manuel Durâo Barroso; British Prime Minister Gordon Brown; and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
”I’m confident that, as EU president, Sarkozy will do what he has to do, and that Spain will be present at the summit” in Washington, he told the legislators.
However, other leaders of the governing Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) are not so convinced, as they have not forgotten how Bush slighted Zapatero, while at the same time warmly welcoming Aznar at his Texas ranch. In March 2003, Bush had met with Aznar and then prime minister of Britain, Tony Blair (1997-2007), at the Azores emergency summit, when they decided to invade Iraq.
Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Ángel Moratinos told IPS that it’s not a question of pride, but rather has to do with the fact that the country has a very solid financial system, and for that reason ”Spain must be present at this summit that will discuss possible solutions to the crisis.”
That is why the government ”will do everything it takes to be able to attend the Washington meeting, as Spain has every right to be there, at such a historic moment as this,” he added.
Moratinos is leading the diplomatic and political offensive to include Spain in the anti-crisis summit.
With that aim, he made direct contact with important figures in the campaign teams of the U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barak Obama and his opponent in the Nov. 4 elections, Republican Senator John McCain.
Also targeted by Spain are the Latin American countries that will be at the Washington summit: Argentina, Brazil and Mexico, whose support Spain is seeking in particular.
Sources at the Moncloa Palace (seat of the Spanish government) told IPS that King Juan Carlos has already scheduled meetings with Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Mexican President Felipe Calderón to discuss the matter.
These and other diplomatic meetings between King Juan Carlos, Zapatero and Moratinos with leading Latin American politicians will take place against the backdrop of the 18th Iberian-American Summit, to be held Oct. 29-31 in El Salvador.
The gathering of heads of state and government of Spain, Portugal, Andorra and 19 Latin American countries is expected to draft guidelines for action and take a stand on the new world economic order, which analysts say will be built in the wake of what they describe as one of the worst global economic and financial crises in decades.
Bush has already declared that he is in favour of ”strengthening the foundations of capitalism.” The Spanish government, on the other hand, prefers to promote in-depth reforms that will focus more on granting emerging economies greater representation, and reviewing the role of multilateral lending institutions that, like the International Monetary Fund, failed to react adequately to the crisis.
