The Diplomat
The Council of Ministers yesterday appointed new Spanish ambassadors to Finland, Costa Rica, the Philippines, Luxembourg and Egypt.
As The Diplomat already announced, Fernando Fernández-Arias will be ambassador to Helsinki; Eva Martínez, ambassador to Costa Rica; Miguel Utray will be in charge of the embassy in Manila and José María Rodríguez Coso will be in charge of the embassy in Luxembourg.
Both Fernando Fernández-Arias and Eva Martínez held senior posts under the previous foreign minister, Arancha González Laya, and were dismissed shortly after José Manuel’s arrival at the Palace of Santa Cruz a little over a year ago.
Specifically, the new ambassador to Helsinki, Fernando Fernández-Arias, was director general of the United Nations, International Organisations and Human Rights from the beginning of 2021 until October of the same year, after having been in charge of the Diplomatic School for the previous three years.
A diplomat since 1990, he was the second head of the Spanish Embassy in Finland between 2002 and 2005, and was posted to Jordan and to the Consulates in Jerusalem and London. A large part of his career has been spent in positions related to the United Nations, including coordinating, from the Spanish Mission in New York, the campaign for Spain’s election as a member of the Security Council for the 2015-2016 period.
Fernández-Arias was Deputy Director General of the Human Rights Office in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs between 2005 and 2008 and a member advisor in the Sub-Directorate General for Migration Affairs in 2015. He was also director of the Office of International Relations at the Ministry of Equality between 2007 and 2008, and in 2008 and 2009 he was vice-president of the European Union Advisory Committee for Equal Opportunities for Women and Men.
For her part, Eva Martínez, who entered the diplomatic career in 1991, became director general for the Maghreb, Mediterranean and Middle East in March 2017, when Alfonso Dastis was minister. Upon taking over the Ministry in 2021, González Laya decided to keep her in the post, given her experience in the region, where she had previously held the post of Deputy Director General for the Maghreb since 2013.
However, Albares replaced her in the post with Alberto Ucelay, and until now she was awaiting an embassy assignment. Throughout her career she has also been posted in Caracas, Mexico and Egypt and in the Permanent Representation of Spain to the EU.
In the Philippines, Miguel Utray will replace Jorge Moragas, who was appointed Ambassador to Tanzania a few weeks ago.
Utray, who was head of International Relations at the Cervantes Institute, entered the diplomatic service in 1990 and since then has been posted to various countries, such as Honduras and Turkey, as well as Australia, where he was consul general in Melbourne, and the United Kingdom, as consul general in Edinburgh. His last posting abroad was to Mexico, where he was cultural and scientific counsellor at the Spanish Embassy between 2017 and 2020. Between 2009 and 2012, he was head of Protocol in the Presidency of the Government, under José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero.
For his part, José María Rodríguez Coso will take charge of the Embassy in Luxembourg, after having been Consul General in Perpignan for the last few years. A diplomat since 1988, he has previously been Ambassador to Ireland and Ambassador Introducer in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as well as having been posted to the Spanish diplomatic representations in the United Arab Emirates, India, Argentina, Cuba, Portugal and Morocco.
Finally, the Council of Ministers approved the appointment of Álvaro Iranzo as Ambassador to Egypt, shortly after he had completed his assignment as Ambassador-at-Large for the NATO Summit in Madrid at the end of June.
Iranzo joined the diplomatic service in 1981 and has previously served as ambassador to Angola, Malaysia, Israel and Saudi Arabia. In addition, he has been Director General of Foreign Policy for the Mediterranean, Middle East and Africa at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, after having held the post of Deputy Director General for North Africa.
