Maputo — Spain has been obliged to reduce its support for bilateral cooperation projects in Mozambique, according to the director of the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID), Juan Lopez Doriga.

Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Doriga, who is on a three day visit to Mozambique, said that the reduction in aid results from the sovereign debt crisis in the Euro zone.

Doriga said that the crisis has led Spain to cut cooperation entirely with 26 of the 50 countries which used to receive Spanish aid.

“Many of the countries with whom we are maintaining cooperation ties are in Latin America”, he said. “But some are African countries, such as Niger, Mali, Ethiopia and Mozambique. The partnership with Mozambique is long-standing and the ties are strong, and so we have decided to continue cooperation with Mozambique”.

“We don’t yet know how much we are going to allocate to the Mozambican government”, Doriga added. “First we must talk with the government to find out what its priorities are. But we are going to reduce the funds”.

Doriga added that he was pleased with the meeting he had on Wednesday with several members of the government, including Prime Minister Alberto Vaquina, Health Minister Alexandre Manguele and the Deputy Minister of Planning and Development, Amelia Nakhare.

AECID has been operating in Mozambique for over 30 years, and has cooperation programmes with the Mozambican government and with some NGOs.