The Diplomat
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, affirmed yesterday, during the closing ceremony of the Course on Diplomacy and International Relations, that the journalistic profession is “indispensable” for foreign policy to be “a State policy”.
“There is only foreign policy if it is State policy, and it is only possible if there is unity of political forces and continuity over time,” said the minister during the closing ceremony of the 5th Specialization Course in Diplomacy and International Relations for Journalists, organized by the Diplomatic School and the Press Association of Madrid (APM).
“Informing Spaniards of what we do in the Ministry is part of the success of foreign policy as a State policy” and, for this, “the work of journalists is indispensable”, he continued during the event, held in the recently recovered ministerial headquarters of the Marqués de Salamanca and attended by the nearly twenty students participating in the fifth edition. With this new promotion, there are now more than one hundred students who have taken part in this course.
“Nothing is more relevant than foreign policy, because the vaccines against COVID are produced abroad, the currency we use is shared with other countries and the gas that heats us comes from foreign countries; it is impossible for Spaniards to do well inside without doing things well outside”, he continued. Therefore, “through journalism and diplomacy, we all contribute to making Spain a relevant country whose voice is heard in the world,” added Albares.
The 5th Specialization Course in Diplomacy and International Relations for Journalists, which was held from January 17 to February 3, 2022, allowed students to add “to their journalistic knowledge a vision of Spain’s foreign policy and international relations that will enable them to better cover information in this field, as well as to develop communication tasks in public institutions and companies with international projection, in addition to non-governmental organizations or transnational associations,” according to the APM.
The course analyzed in depth Spain’s foreign policy as a member of the European Union. In addition, the students were able to learn who executes and develops foreign policy, the axes of Spain’s foreign policy, the communication plans of the Embassies, the mission of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who protects Spaniards abroad in the event of contingencies, the Western Sahara issue, Spanish cooperation policy or relations with Latin America and the Caribbean, North America, Sub-Saharan Africa or Asia Pacific.
