William Hague and Trinidad Jimenez joint press conference

William Hague and Trinidad Jimenez joint press conference; ENGLAND: London: Westminster:INT**BEWARE FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY**William Hague (Foreign Secretary) and Trinidad Jimenez (Spanish Foreign Affairs Minister) along to podiums / William Hague (Foreign Secretary) press conference SOT- The relationship between our countries is a strong one and a historic one / over 800,000 British people live in Spain / Spain's support is of enormous value to UK / keen to explore ways our countries can work together / Britain's retreat from Latin American is over and it's now time for an advance to begin / Spain is an important ally in the European Union / both returned recently from visits to the Middle East / already discussed our views of the changing political situation in the Middle East / earlier today I made a short statement in the House of Commons over events in Bahrain, conveying our concerns about what happened overnight / we've stressed the need for peaceful action to address concerns of protesters and the importance of the right to peaceful protest and for freedom of expression / asked Bahraini government to move quickly on it's committment to a transparent investigation into earlier deaths and to include this morning's events / it's time to build bridges between different religious communities in Bahrain / Bahrain has made important political reforms alongside its growing economic success / I've been assured by Bahraini leaders that their government intends to build on these reforms and is sincere about it / the long friendship between Bahrain and the UK / across the Middle East we call for the right to peaceful protest and effective economic development and more open and flexible political systems / we call for right to peaceful protest to be affirmed in Libya and Iran as well as Bahrain / I'm confident our relationship with Spain will grow stronger in the future / working together with Spanish Foreign Affairs Minister on various issues