The Diplomat
Acciona’s Vice Chairman and President of the Spain-India Council Foundation (SICF), Juan Ignacio Entrecanales, met last week with Spain’s newly appointed Ambassador to New Delhi, José María Ridao.
During the working lunch, Entrecanales explained to the ambassador the interests of the Spanish private sector in the Asian country and how the Foundation works in this regard. Ridao was appointed Spain’s ambassador to India on July 20 by the Council of Ministers. The post had been vacant for almost nine months, following the retirement of the previous incumbent, José Ramón Barañano, at the end of October.
“José María Ridao is a diplomat with an extensive and recognized career,” the Council Foundation said in a press release. “His appointment as Spain’s ambassador to India responds to the importance of the country for the Government of Spain as an emerging power on a global scale and also as a preferential partner in an economically and politically strategic region,” it added.
In addition to the specific functions of his position, José María Ridao will assume in his new assignment the direct interlocution with the management team of the Spain-India Council Foundation, headed by the president of the Foundation and complemented by Ambassador José Leandro Consarnau, secretary general of the SICF; Berta Fuertes, director of the Council Foundation; and Vega Yubero, deputy director.
“Public-private collaboration is an indisputable tool for the economic strengthening of Spain,” said the SICF. “Also decisive for the country is the successful internationalization of its large companies, which concentrate a large part of their business in the foreign sector. Both concepts are not new, but especially the first has been demonstrated and reinforced after the economic and health crisis caused by the pandemic,” it continued. “The Spain-India Council Foundation has been working along these lines for more than ten years,” it added.
