The Diplomat
Montserrat Riba, who for nearly ten years was secretary general of Casa Asia, has been appointed delegate of the Government of Catalonia to the Nordic and Baltic countries.
At the end of November last year, the Generalitat decided to merge the two ’embassies’ it had in the Nordic and Baltic countries into one, based in Stockholm.
Riba, born in Sabadell (Barcelona) in 1964, holds a degree in Law from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), a Master’s degree in European Studies from the Université Libre de Bruxelles and from 2012 to 2021 was secretary general of Casa Asia, a public diplomacy consortium created to promote relations with Asian and Pacific countries in the institutional, economic, social, cultural and academic spheres.
Casa Asia is headquartered in Barcelona and its Board of Trustees includes the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Government of Catalonia and Barcelona City Council. Its survival went through difficult times a few years ago, mainly due to the decrease and non-payment of funds that the Catalan Government was supposed to contribute to the only institution of the Network of Casas that has its headquarters in Catalonia, problems that Monserrat Ribó knows well because at that time she was Casa Asia’s Secretary General.
Yesterday, the Generalitat also approved the appointment of Javier Calderón as the new delegate of the Catalan government in Senegal.
