The Diplomat
Philip VI attended yesterday the sixth inauguration of a Latin American president since his arrival to the Throne, specifically that of the new president of Peru, Pedro Castillo, who took the oath of office “for a country without corruption and for a new Constitution”.
The Monarch arrived on Tuesday at the El Callao Air Base in Lima, where he was received by the Minister of Foreign Trade and Tourism of Peru, Claudia Eugenia Cornejo. Later, the King met at the Spanish Embassy with a representation of the Spanish community and with the Spanish diplomatic staff and, in the afternoon, he held a meeting with the still elected President, Pedro Castillo.
Then, together with the heads of State and Government attending the ceremony, the King attended the Act of Homage to Peru, on the occasion of the bicentenary of the country’s independence, in the Plaza de Armas in Lima. At the end of the ceremony, he had a meeting with Francisco Sagasti, outgoing President of Peru. The day ended with the King’s attendance to the dinner offered by Sagasti in honor of the attending heads of State and Government.
Yesterday, the King held meetings with Iván Duque, President of Colombia, and Sebastián Piñera, President of Chile, and attended the Ceremony of Transmission of Presidential Command, during which Pedro Castillo, dressed in his traditional straw hat, swore “for the people of Peru, for a country without corruption and for a new Constitution”. “It is the first time that this country will be governed by a peasant”, he proclaimed. After the ceremony, Philip VI participated in the lunch offered by the new president and the first lady of Peru in honor of the attending heads of state and government.
Yesterday’s was the sixth participation of Philip VI in an inauguration of an Ibero-American president since he has been King, since he was in 2018 in that of the Mexican Andrés Manuel López Obrador, in 2019 in that of the Panamanian Laurentino Cortizo, in 2020 in those of the Uruguayan Luis Lacalle Pou and in that of the Bolivian Luis Arce, and in May 2021 in that of the Ecuadorian Guillermo Lasso Mendoza.
Together with the Monarch, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, and the Secretary of State for Latin America and the Caribbean and Spanish in the World, Juan Fernández Trigo, traveled to Peru.
Taking advantage of his stay in Lima, Albares met with his Brazilian counterpart, Carlos França, to discuss “bilateral and regional matters” and to deepen “cooperation in trade and education”, according to the Foreign Ministries of the two countries. He also held a meeting with the Argentine Minister of Foreign Affairs, Felipe Solá, with whom he reviewed “the status of the EU-Mercosur agreement and the situation in the region”, and met with the Chilean Foreign Minister, Andrés Allamand, with whom he discussed, among other matters, “the vaccination process in Chile and Spain, the economic recovery after the pandemic and the final negotiations for the modernization of the Association Agreement with the European Union”, according to the Chilean Minister.
