The Minister of Defence visits the Spanish troops deployed in Lebanon

The Minister of Defence, Margarita Robles, made her first visit to the Spanish troops deployed abroad on 28th and 29th June. The first destination was Marjayon in Lebanon where the Spanish base "Miguel de Cervantes" is located. This base is the home to the majority of the Spanish contingent which forms part of the United Nations Interim Force In Lebanon (UNIFIL).

"I wanted the first visit to a mission like this to be to Lebanon, to make a small tribute to the work that you do, to the 14 Spanish and one Salvadoran comrades who died", explains Robles to the Spanish troops. "The main objective of this trip to Lebanon is to transmit to you my support, recognition and solidarity as well as that from the President of the Government. We feel extremely proud of your work".

Previously, the minister had had a work meeting with her Lebanese counterpart, Yacoub Riad Al Sarraf in the headquarters of the Ministry of Defense of the Lebanese Republic in Beirut, to strengthen the bilateral relations and cooperation between both countries in terms of security and defense.

After giving the tribute to those who gave their lives for Spain in the "Miguel de Cervantes" base, Robles visited the facilities where the Spanish military carried out their tasks, accompanied by the Chief of the Eastern Multinational Brigade and the Chief of the Spanish contingent. Following this, the delegation moved to the command post where the minister attended a presentation where she was informed about the UNIFIL operations which are being carried out to comply with the resoultion of 1701 of the United Nations Security Council. At the end of the day, the minister had dinner with the members from the Spanish contingency where they exchanged their opinions.

Today during the daytime, the Minister of Defence is planning to visit some other detachments where the rest of the Spanish contingent which forms part of the UNIFIL is deployed.