GIRONA — French president Jacques Chirac said a strategic alliance between France and Spain formed a new European power bloc.

Chirac said until now France had only had a high-level strategic alliance with Germany but now a similar relationship existed with Spain.

His Spanish counterpart, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero said relations between Spain and France had never been better.

Speaking before a joint Hispano-French conference in Girona, Zapatero said the two countries were “each day closer. It would be difficult for them to develop closer ties”.

For his part, Chirac said Thursday’s summit was a “great move towards the strategic association between Spain and France”.

“The closeness between France and Spain has strengthened Europe,” he added.

Without going into specifics, the two premiers were expected to discuss security, immigration and energy.

Among these topics will be the peace process with ETA.

Zapatero spoke of the good economic relations between the two countries and shared tourism between both countries.

[Copyright EFE with Expatica]

Subject: Spanish news