Foreign policy of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Hagiographer (talk | contribs) at 07:07, 10 July 2006 (Reverted vandalism.). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Revision as of 07:07, 10 July 2006 by Hagiographer (talk | contribs) (Reverted vandalism.)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)

José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero has been the Prime Minister of Spain since 2004. The foreign policy of the Zapatero administration is one of the areas where Zapatero differs most from his predecessor José María Aznar.

Whereas Aznar defended a foreign policy based on a strong alliance with the United States and a peripheral strategy within the European Union, Zapatero prefers to focus on a centrist European Union strategy based in good relations with France and Germany, keeping good relations with Cuba and Venezuela (and with Bolivia since Evo Morales was elected). Aznar supported the Iraq war and his relations with Fidel Castro's Cuba were bad and were not especially good with Hugo Chávez's Venezuela. Zapatero opposed the Iraq war before being elected and claims to favor a multilateral world, with the United Nations playing a fundamental role. He has also affirmed his view that a strict respect to international law is essential for keeping peace (clearly in reference to the Iraq war).

Zapatero proposed an Alliance of Civilizations to solve the current conflicts between different cultural zones in the world, especially terrorism.

Areas of foreign policy action

Iraq

Before being elected, Zapatero opposed the American policy in regard to Iraq, supported by former Spanish Prime Minister José María Aznar. During the electoral campaign Zapatero had promised to withdraw the troops if control in Iraq was not passed to the United Nations after June 30th (the ending date of the initial Spanish military agreement with the multinational coalition that had overthrown Saddam Hussein). He declared that he did not intend to withdraw the Spanish troops before that date after being questioned about the issue by Mariano Rajoy in his inauguration parliamentary debate.

Rodríguez Zapatero changed his opinion and on April 19, 2004 announced the withdrawal of the 1300 Spanish troops in Iraq (). The scheduled return date coincided with the beginning of the European Election political campaign (what was not casual according to some critics, as the opposition to Aznar's Iraq policy had been high among Spaniards). The announcement of the withdrawal coincided with a serious growth in the amount of terrorist abductions in Iraq intended to blackmail against the government of the victims' countries.

The decision aroused a high international criticism worldwide, as it was feared that the terrorists could perceive it as a victory obtained thanks to the March 11 attacks. Even the then Democratic candidate for the American Presidency, John Kerry asked Zapatero not to retire the Spanish soldiers. Some months after retiring the troops, the Socialist Government agreed to increase the number of Spanish soldiers in Afghanistan and to send troops to Haiti. It seems that one of the aims of these actions was to show the Spanish Government's willingness to spend resources on international missions of which it approved.

On June 8, 2004, with the withdrawal already complete, Zapatero's government voted in the UN Security Council in favor of the Resolution 1546 where the following could be read:

"The Security Council, Recognizing the importance of international support for the people of Iraq , Affirming the importance of international assistance in reconstruction and development of the Iraqi economy ,

15. Requests Member States and international and regional organizations to contribute assistance to the multinational force, including military forces, as agreed with the Government of Iraq, to help meet the needs of the Iraqi people for security and stability, humanitarian and reconstruction assistance, and to support the efforts of UNAMI;"

Later, during a visit to Tunisia, Zapatero asked all of the countries with troops in Iraq to withdraw their soldiers thus imitating his decision. This declaration moved the U.S. president George W. Bush to send an angry letter to the Spanish premier. Later, the American ambassador to Spain refused to go to the annual National Holiday military parade on October 12, 2004, as a response to Zapatero's behavior the previous year.

In December of 2005, officials in the People's Party questioned Zapatero's government as to why a Spanish frigate, Alvaro de Bazán, accompanied the Theodore Roosevelt, an American aircraft carrier, to the Persian Gulf and why it had been participating in Operation Iraqi Freedom from September to December of that year.

South America

An important change in Spanish foreign policy was Zapatero's decision to approach extreme left-wing leaders such as Fidel Castro and the President of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez. Zapatero has played an important role in the improvement of the relation between the Cuban Communist regime and the European Union.

At the end of March 2005, Zapatero traveled to Venezuela to draw a deal to sell Hugo Chavez's regime military ship and aircraft worth around $1000 million. The decision was criticized by both the American government and the People's Party.

After the election of Evo Morales in Bolivia, Spain was one of the countries the new president visited during his first international tour.

United States

The relations between José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero and George W. Bush have been difficult due to the Spanish decision to withdraw Spanish troops in Iraq.

Zapatero publicly stated his support for John Kerry as a candidate running in the American Presidential Election in November 2004. After the election took place, Bush never returned Zapatero's congratulation phone call. (The White House firmly denied that Bush's intention was snubbing the Spanish prime minister. ) Zapatero has repeatedly insisted that Spain's relations with the United States are good.

European Union

Zapatero's predecessor, José María Aznar, defended the combination of a strong alliance with the United States of America with a peripheral European strategy where Spain would emphasize its friendship with European countries such as Italy, the United Kingdom or Poland in order to compensate French and German power.

Zapatero has preferred to focus mainly on France and Germany, instead, which would form, along with Spain, a strong block opposed to American preponderance and aimed at directing European destiny. According to his supporters, the new policy will consist in fostering the Spanish links with the core European countries, what would improve Spanish stance in Europe.

File:Zapateronividhia1.jpg

Zapatero meets former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and French President Jacques Chirac

In the writing of the European Constitution, Zapatero accepted the distribution of power proposed by countries such as Germany and France, abandoning Poland, that had defended until then the same stance as the Spanish People's Party government. The new distribution meant a loss of influence for Spain, but Zapatero accepted it even without compensation for his country. After signing the treaty in Rome together with other leaders, he decided to call for a referendum, which was held on February 20, 2005. It was the first in Europe (a fact highly publicized by Zapatero's government). The turnout was the lowest in Spanish history, only 41%. Of those voters, 75% voted in favor of the European Constitution, which had been defended by the most important parties (including the Socialist Party and the People's Party).

France and Germany

On March 1, 2005, Zapatero became the first Spanish prime minister to speak to the French National Assembly.

Zapatero directly supported the SPD candidate, former Chancellor Schröder, before the German election of September 18, 2005. He also declared that Angela Merkel, the Christian Democrat candidate, would never become the Chancellor (Kanzler) of Germany. According to some opinions, that might have affected German-Spanish relationships negatively.

Gibraltar

Zapatero initially took a strong line with the United Kingdom, complaining at Gibraltar's celebrations for the tercentenary of its independence from Spain and rejecting the Gibraltarians' requests for Spain to recognize its right to self-determination. Zapatero's government could have considered those celebrations a provocation that could be showing Britain's wish to make Zapatero "pay" for abandoning Spain's former allies in Iraq.

At the end of 2004, Zapatero decided to change his policy and to become the first Spanish prime minister to accept the participation of Gibraltar as a partner on the same level as Spain and the United Kingdom in the discussions both countries hold regularly about the colony. The decision was criticized as a surrender of the Spanish rights to sovereignty over the British colony by the Spanish opposition. Zapatero justified it as a new way to solve a 300 hundred years old problem.

Poland

In December of 2004, Zapatero, after attending the Parliamentary Investigative Committee about the March 11 terrorist attacks for 15 hours, decided to suspend his meeting with the Polish government, scheduled for the next day in Poland. He argued, literally, that "he felt a little tired". Some days later, Zapatero was scheduled to meet the Polish Prime Minister in a European summit to be held in Brussels. This meeting did not take place either, after the airplane of the Polish leader was said to have suffered an unexpected delay. This added to the already damaged Spanish-Polish relations that had been affected by Zapatero's abandonment of Poland in the talks to draft the European Constitution.