The Diplomat
The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, left yesterday for New York to speak at the 76th General Assembly of the United Nations, a speech that will take place today, a day earlier than planned, in order to be able to coincide tomorrow with the King on the island of La Palma.
According to Moncloa, the President of the Government left the Canary Islands yesterday afternoon for the United States “on the occasion of his participation in the General Assembly of the United Nations (UN)” and will return tomorrow Thursday to La Palma, where he has been since last Sunday to closely follow the operations following the eruption of the volcano.
“On Thursday I will join, hopefully in time and hour, the visit that the Head of State, His Majesty the King, will develop on the island of La Palma; and on Friday I will remain here with the Government of the Canary Islands and the Government of the Cabildo to continue participating in the Steering Committee of PEVOLCA”, Sánchez explained to the press after participating in the Steering Committee of the Special Plan for Civil Protection and Emergency Care by Volcanic Risk (PEVOLCA), before which the Executive has initiated the first steps for the declaration of emergency area.
The initial plan of the President of the Government was to travel to New York on Sunday and to remain the whole week in the North American city to attend the General Assembly, including the opening of the 76th session of the General Assembly, which took place yesterday and in which the President of the United States, Joe Biden, among others, intervened. Finally, Sánchez has been forced to substantially modify his agenda due to the volcanic eruption in La Palma, which occurred two hours before his plane was scheduled to take off. Part of the President’s agenda has been taken over by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, who attended the opening of the Assembly yesterday.
In any case, Pedro Sánchez will arrive in time to meet today with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg at the residence of the Ambassador Permanent Representative of Spain to the UN (11:30 a.m. in New York and 5:30 p.m. in New York and 5:30 p.m. in mainland Spain): 30 in mainland Spain); to appear before the media an hour later, in the same place; and to attend at the headquarters of the Instituto Cervantes in New York the Pathfinders meeting on multilateralism and “fair” recovery after the pandemic, together with the leaders of Costa Rica, Sierra Leone and Sweden (the only event that remains from the initial agenda).
Finally, he will address the plenary of the General Assembly at 8:30 p.m., according to New York time (2:30 a.m. in Spain), and will return to Spain in order to accompany King Philip VI on his visit to the areas affected by the volcano tomorrow, Thursday.
On the other hand, bilateral meetings with the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Boris Johnson; the President of Ecuador, Guillermo Lasso; the President of Bolivia, Luis Arce; and the Emir of Qatar, Tamim bin Hamad Al Zan, have been suspended. Also cancelled are his participation in a colloquium organized by the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, on women in conflict, which will focus especially on Afghanistan, and an event promoted by the businessman Michael Bloomberg, scheduled for Monday, in which Sánchez was to present to U.S. investors the opportunities offered by Spain with its Recovery Plan.
