Andorra, enjoying traditionally strong cooperation with Spain and Catalonia, which is the microstate's immediate neighbor, views developments in the autonomous region as a sensitive issue and hopes that Barcelona and Madrid will manage to come to an agreement, Andorran Foreign Minister Maria Ubach Font told Sputnik on Wednesday.
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 10th October, 2018) Andorra, enjoying traditionally strong cooperation with Spain and Catalonia, which is the microstate's immediate neighbor, views developments in the autonomous region as a sensitive issue and hopes that Barcelona and Madrid will manage to come to an agreement, Andorran Foreign Minister Maria Ubach Font told Sputnik on Wednesday.
"We need to behave naturally and have this bilateral cooperation with our neighbors in a natural way. Of course what we would like is that Spain achieve an agreement on the situation in Catalonia and the central decision-makers in Madrid. That is our will and we think it would be something positive for the region," the minister stressed.
She added that the ongoing dispute between the Spanish central authorities and the pro-independence politicians in Catalonia was the neighbor's domestic affair.
"For us bilateral cooperation with Spain is essential, Spain is our neighbor and one of the main economic partners in Andorra so the cooperation is very strong. The cooperation with Catalonia is also very strong, because Catalonia is a region that is closer to Andorra, it is on the border," the foreign minister explained.
She added that even despite internal divisions in Spain, Andorra proceed with its collaboration with the Spanish central authorities, in particular, on the project of Andorra's association agreement with the European Union, and with trans-border cooperation with neighboring Catalonia.
On October 1, 2017, Catalonia held an independence vote, which resulted in over 90 percent of those who voted backing the region's autonomy. Madrid objected to the referendum and refused to recognize its results. In late October, Madrid imposed direct rule over Catalonia and dissolved the regional parliament, after the Catalan government proclaimed the region's independence.
