Basseterre, St. Kitts, October 09, 2020 (SKNIS): Giselle Clarke-Farago, newly appointed Honorary Consul of Spain to the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis, presented her credentials to the Honourable Mark Brantley, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Aviation, at a brief but significant ceremony on Friday, October 09, 2020.
Minister Brantley welcomed Mrs. Clarke Farago and congratulated her on her appointment.
“I want to welcome you to the diplomatic corps. I want to thank you and I want to thank the government, of course, for appointing you and certainly, we look forward to working closely with you,” said Minister Brantley. “St. Kitts and Nevis and Spain have had a longstanding relationship and as a consequence of that, we are very happy that you have taken on board the role as honorary consul. The truth is that we feel we can do much more with Spain.”
The foreign minister reflected on the visa-free access that both countries enjoy.
“That always helps as we try to promote people-to-people contact and diplomacy. We are hopeful that through you and your efforts we can do better in terms of tourism, training, scholarship opportunities and we really want to see that energy as we try to energize the relations that we have now and make them even stronger,” he said. “It is always our objectives here at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to deepen relations with friendly countries to expand our diplomatic footprint and certainly we think that we can benefit from things like your language training.”
Minister Brantley referenced the cultural ties between the two countries.
“Spain, of course, has a very formidable footfall culture in St. Kitts and Nevis… so there are lots of areas in sports, culture and language that we feel we can benefit from and we are hopeful that with you and with the energy that we know you will bring to the role, that St. Kitts and Nevis and Spain will foster even deeper relations,” said the minister.
He used the occasion to express thanks to her predecessor, Gary De Silva, noting that he did an excellent job in bringing the two countries closer.
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