Luis Ayllón
The current director general of Foreign and Security Policy, Federico Torres Muro, will be Spain’s next ambassador to the Atlantic Alliance, The Diplomat has learned from reliable sources.
Torres Muro will replace Miguel Fernández-Palacios as Spain’s permanent representative to the NATO Council, just weeks after the end of the allied summit in Madrid.
Fernández-Palacios, who was appointed to the post four years ago, played a leading role in preparing for the summit, which was unanimously praised by the world leaders who attended.
Now that the Madrid event is over, the government has decided to replace Fernández-Palacios, who will be appointed ambassador to Italy, as soon as the Italian authorities grant the corresponding approval for the appointment.
As a result of this appointment, the former foreign minister Alfonso Dastis, who had held the post since September 2018, will leave the embassy in Rome. According to sources consulted by The Diplomat, Dastis’ destination could be the Embassy in Lisbon -currently occupied by Marta Betanzos- although there is no official confirmation that this will be the case.
The future ambassador to NATO, Federico Torres, was appointed director general of Foreign and Security Policy, one of the most important positions within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, by the current head of the Department, José Manuel Albares, shortly after taking office in July 2021.
Torres Muro had been called to the Ministry in February 2020 by the previous minister, Arancha González Laya, and by the Secretary of State for Global Spain, Manuel Muñiz, to occupy the Directorate General for Strategy, Foresight and Coherence. Together with Muñiz, he was one of the architects of the Foreign Action Strategy for the period 2021-2024. He was previously Spain’s ambassador to Ecuador and El Salvador.
Miguel Fernández-Palacios, the next ambassador to Rome, was ambassador to the Democratic Republic of Congo and Ethiopia before taking charge of the Permanent Representation to NATO. He was also director of the Cabinet of the Minister of Defence and of the President of the Congress of Deputies, in both cases when these posts were held by veteran Socialist politician José Bono.
