Rare cooperation between the Hydrographic Institutes of Spain and Portugal has resulted in a new nautical chart depicting the seabed at the mouth of the Guadiana river.
This warranted a presentation in Ayamonte, attended by the defence ministers of both countries, Margarita Robles and José Alberto de Azeredo, as well as Council and Armed Forces representatives.
The director of the Hydrographic Institute of Cádiz, José Daniel González Aller, explained that these nautical charts, now published in Portuguese and Spanish, mark the first time the two institutes agreed to cooperate and end of having to use two different charts covering the same area - this will improve safety.
Robles said, "Today it’s the Guadiana that unites us, but the story unites us, something that nobody can take away from us, we have common past but also a present and a lot of future," going on to highlight the role of Spain and Portugal in international organisations, such as the European Union and NATO.
The Portuguese Minister of Defence stressed the "originality" of the new chart and that it was remarkable that the two institutes agrees to work together and produce a charts that was far better than the previous versions.