Cairo – The vice president of the government of Spain, Maria Teresa Fernandez De La Vega, visited Egypt last week. She met with president Hosni Mubarak and with prime minister Ahmed Nazif, with whom she signed a memorandum of understanding to boost economic and trade relations between both countries.
In an interview to ANBA, during a visit to Cervantes Centre, in Cairo, Vega spoke about the Spanish position with regard to the closer ties between South America and the Arab world. According to her, her country finds itself in an excellent position with regard to this geopolitical movement, as it maintains privileged relations with both regions.
Maria Teresa also spoke about matters like the initiative of the Alliance of Civilizations, launched by the prime minister of Spain, Jose Luis Rogrigues Zapatero, currently under the United Nations and to have its next meeting in Brazil.
The question of equal opportunities between men and women and greater female participation in the global public life are also matters in which she is greatly interested. To Vega, women should have a greater participation in the global decision making process, thus being able to offer precious contributions to the improvement of the dialogue and promotion of world peace. Below are the main stretches of the interview:
ANBA – How do you evaluate the current state of affairs between Egypt and Spain?
Maria Teresa Fernandez De La Vega – Spain and Egypt are friendly countries and we are, undoubtedly, crossing an extraordinarily positive phase for our relations on all levels. They were rekindled with the visit of their majesties the king and queen of Spain to this country last year, when a treaty for friendship and cooperation was signed. President Mubarak told me that he plans to intensify trade and commercial relations, as our political relations are excellent. We also signed, with the Egyptian prime minister, a memorandum of understanding aimed at activating the friendship and cooperation treaty signed last year.
What result is the Spanish initiative of the Alliance of Civilizations having on the dialogue between the West and the Arab and Muslim world?
I believe that dialogue should be the base instrument, essential for people to live in peace. Dialogue between cultures and civilisations is a fundamental mechanism to reach this objective. The Alliance of Civilizations, established in 2004 by president Zapatero and later adopted by the United Nations, managed to show, throughout the years, that it is a valid instrument, capable of building a future based on the principles of respect and tolerance, in a world that is as complex as ours. We are very satisfied with the progress of the Alliance of Civilizations, which has, up to now, managed to win space and work as a catalyst for support all over the world . It is creating a true field turned to dialogue, agreements and understanding. Apart from that, I can say that the great success in terms of representativeness, obtained in the last Istanbul Forum, showed that our initiative was not just an important idea, but was also launched at a decisive moment, at a moment in which it was extremely necessary.
Do you not feel that this idea is also finding serious bars and difficulties on the practical side like, for example, the global economic crisis, which may favour ethnic tensions or xenophobia, or that it may even be affected by political problems like the consequence of Gaza crisis?
No. I do not believe that it will be affected by these questions. I believe that we must deal with the complexity of the world we live in. For this reason, we must get used to creating instruments to deal with this complexity in an adequate manner. This means creating mechanisms that may foster the respect and tolerance between people and show the measure through which peaceful coexistence and exchange may help us obtain riches for our cultures, and not the opposite. We must do this in a way that shows that others, those who are different, always have much to teach us and help us obtain a more enriching vision of the world.
And how does this takes place in a country like Spain, where there is an important community of Muslim immigrants?
We are working very hard on following this logic. In our country we are promoting a policy of immigration centred on recognition of the rights of all citizens from other countries to come to work in our territory. We recognize all their rights to do everything for their integration, based on the principles of public order and rules of the country where they live, but also guaranteeing them respect to their culture of origin and to the fact that they are different.
We really work hard for integration of immigrants. I can say, with great satisfaction, that we have, in Spain, a very positive situation. Immigrants bought great riches to our country, and not only in the economic point of view, they were very important for the notion of plurality to be installed in our country.
And despite the economic crisis and the unavoidable increase of unemployment due to this situation, have there been no situations in Spain in which xenophobia was shown?
In truth, there has not been any case of which I know. For this not to take place, our government is working hard together with the civil society. We are operating together with association movements, with associations of immigrants, with institutions and with autonomous associations to make prevail our policy of integration, which is centred on respect to law and order and which recognizes rights, but also establishes obligations. In this logic I can say that fortunately, up to now, no manifestation or incident of the kind, of racism or xenophobia, has been produced in our country.
The Arab and South American countries have been maintaining a common policy of generation of closer ties, which translates into the works of the summits of South American-Arab Countries (Aspa). What do these closer ties in the geopolitical plan represent to Spain?
I believe that this is very important and we followed this initiative of president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s closely. We did this as an Ibero-American country and also in our condition as a Euro-Mediterranean country. We therefore maintain privileged relations with both regions and find ourselves in a position that helps us have a unique perspective to understand these ties and to support them plainly.
You are concerned with the matter of support to development of women. How do you currently evaluate the question of equality of genders in the world and specifically in this region?
I sincerely believe that the world cannot advance without the clear participation of women, as they easily converted themselves into the main vector and the best agent for social transformation. We noticed that the societies that evolve the fastest are those where women were integrated and participate plainly in all sectors of life, be it political, economic, educational, etc. But, unfortunately, inequality in terms of opportunities continues on all parts.
How about here in Egypt, have you had any contact with projects connected to the development of the female potential?
I participated in a meeting at an organisation of entrepreneurial women and was very pleased to be at the meeting. It is very interesting to see that, in all parts of the world, we find a root of inequality between men and women that is derived from a situation of patriarchal domination to which we were submitted throughout the centuries and which made "masculine" the dominating power and "feminine" a subordinate value. It is necessary for everybody finally to become aware of the importance of female contribution to this new society, in terms of, for example, its capacity for the exercising of dialogue.
We notice that the world, which up to now was solely governed by men, is not doing as well as it should be. That is why we have to grant women an opportunity to show how, through their management and participation, they may introduce important elements that will contribute to a peace that is so important to all.
*Translated by Mark Ament
