The document was signed by the EU High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Guatemala, Carlos Ramiro Martínez Alvarado, and aims to promote a structured dialogue on a multitude of topics, from green transition to trade. and investments.
“With this memorandum of understanding we demonstrate a clear and firm will to strengthen our bilateral relations, establishing a bilateral, open and structured dialogue, as the EU does with all the partners with which it wants to have a privileged network,” Borrell said following signing the agreement.
The head of community diplomacy, who held a meeting with Arévalo following the ceremony, recalled that when he attended his inauguration on January 14, he already spoke with him regarding this memorandum and how relations between the EU and Guatemala should “flourish and develop” when he became president.
“It was not just any inauguration, but it was transcendental, because the will of the Guatemalans might be carried out successfully and now it is a great pleasure to receive it in Brussels,” said the Spanish politician.
Borrell stressed that his visit then was a sign of the commitment of the EU and its Member States to the people of Guatemala and of the “firm support for the president who was elected at the polls, and is now in office.”
The high representative stated that “EU support has been consistent from the beginning” and that the electoral mission sent to the presidential elections in Guatemala was able to verify that they had taken place “in good shape.”
In addition, he alluded to the sanctions that the EU imposed on Guatemala’s attorney general, Consuelo Porras Argueta, and four other people for their attempts to prevent Arévalo’s inauguration.
“We are concerned not only regarding what happens in Ukraine, the Middle East or our immediate neighborhood, but also how democracy, the rule of law, are preserved in countries like Guatemala, which are further away geographically but very close, politically, culturally. historically, of us,” he indicated.
For his part, Martínez highlighted that the memorandum signed today will not only strengthen the bilateral relationship with the systematization of dialogue, but will also be “a very important platform to develop a concrete long-term agenda based on shared values.”
He affirmed that this bilateral agenda covers a wide variety of topics ranging from trade and investment to development cooperation, the promotion of human rights, culture and education.
“We perceive great opportunities to work together with the EU to continue strengthening our ties in areas such as development projects under the Global Gateway initiative,” the EU’s global investment program, said the minister, as well as in the agenda of security framed in the PAcCTO program and Guatemala’s accession to the Latin American Security Council CLASI, something that he hopes the country will do in the coming days.
He also highlighted the cooperation opportunities that are opening up to strengthen bilateral dialogue within the framework of the European Union’s digital alliance.
“We hope to hold the first high-level meeting of the bilateral consultation mechanism very soon,” Martínez concluded.
Borrell stressed that “we have many challenges beyond good governance and the rule of law.”
“I know how you intend to carry out this fight for social justice in a country with enormous inequalities. A sustainable development, which combines the increase of material well-being with the defense of environmental balances,” Borrell told Arévalo, while praising measures that the country already takes in favor of the environment.
He recalled that during his visit to Guatemala he announced the EU’s investment of 50 million euros in the department of Petén, and announced that the services of the European Commission will travel to the country in March to address the Global Gateway projects.
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