Spain's royal couple ends landmark visit to Jordan

Apr 26, 2006, 19:23 GMT

Amman - Spain's King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia on Wednesday wound up a three-day state visit to Jordan which Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Moratinos dubbed as a 'turning point' in the ties between the two countries.

'The trip represents a very positive turning point that will help boost the strategic ties between Amman and Madrid,' Moratinos told the state-run Jordan Television.

He said the Amman Declaration he signed during the visit with his Jordanian counterpart Abdul Ilah Khatib 'will be instrumental in the achievement of the joint goal of promoting mutual respect and erecting new bridges of understanding between the West and the Arab world.'

The two countries said that the document sought to achieve, among other things, an in-depth dialogue between Islam and Christianity, an academic approach for combating extremism and a balance between the freedom of opinion and the freedom of faith.

Khatib said the adoption of the document was prompted by the turmoil earlier this year that followed the publication of the blasphemous caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed by the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten and their reprinting by several papers in Europe and elsewhere.

He pointed out that Jordan and Spain were qualified to lead the move for the alliance of civilizations 'in view of the legitimacy enjoyed by King Abdullah's Hashemite family in the Islamic world and the Spanish royal family's historic heritage and pioneering role in Europe.'

Moratinos and Khatib said that they had agreed to set up a task force comprising senior officials and civil society leaders from the two countries to work out a 'common vision about the best ways for promoting understanding and mutual respect between the West and the Arab-Islamic world.'

Before their departure, the Spanish royal couple, accompanied by Jordan's King Abdullah and Queen Rania, toured the Aqaba Special Economic Zone on the northern mouth of the Red Sea, a favourite destination for tourists from Spain and other European countries.

According to the Zone's chairman Nader Dahabi, about 12 per cent of the 287,000 European tourists who visited Aqaba last year came from Spain.

During the trip, Juan Carlos also opened a conference of Spanish and Jordanian businessmen, urging the setting up of new joint ventures that may benefit from Spain's sophisticated technology and the positive investment environment provided by Jordan.