Wednesday, August 20 2008

KING JUAN Carlos I of Spain and his wife Queen Sofia will visit Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica from December 1 to 4 as part of the first visit by a Spanish monarch to the English- speaking Caribbean.

Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Zapatero made the announcement at the opening of the Fourth Caricom/Spain summit in Madrid on July 11. Interestingly, Trinidad and Tobago was represented at that summit by Local Government Minister Hazel Manning, the wife of Prime Minister Patrick Manning. Mrs Manning’s attendance at that summit was exclusively reported by Newsday on July 14.

“We trust your region. That is why there are major Spanish investments there.” Zapatero said. The Spanish PM said Spain had annually supported Caricom on a bilateral and multilateral basis to the tune of 60 million Euros.

Government officials last night said a visit by the Spanish monarchs to this country in the near future was not impossible, given TT’s close ties with Spain.

Spanish company Repsol YPF is one of the main stakeholders in the Atlantic LNG plant in Point Fortin.

On March 14, 2005, Prime Minister Patrick Manning was invited by King Juan Carlos to deliver the keynote address at GasTech 2005, an international conference and exhibition on liquefied natural gas (LNG) in Bilbao, Spain. In that same year, Manning was cleared by the Integrity Commission of allegations of corruptions levelled against him after he accepted a trip on a private jet which was reportedly owned by Repsol.

Even as Manning meets today with his Caricom counterparts in Dominica, St Kitts and Nevis and Antigua and Barbuda to discuss a new attempt to achieve regional political integration, Zapatero last month underscored Spain’s “unstinting support” for the Caricom Single Market and Economy (CSME). The Spanish PM also hailed the economic partnership agreement between the European Union and Cariforum (Caricom and the Dominican Republic), which is to be signed in Barbados on September 2, as a “historic milestone.”