The Diplomat
The Council of Ministers yesterday appointed Guillermo Ardizone to the post of Director General of Foreign and Security Policy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He replaces Federico de Torres Muro, new ambassador permanent representative of Spain to the NATO Council. Likewise, former minister Alfonso Dastis is the new ambassador to Hungary.
Guillermo Ardizone, born in 1962, holds a law degree and entered the diplomatic service in 1990. In Spain he has held the positions of head of Area for African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries, in the Directorate General for International Economic Relations, and technical advisor for Foreign Relations with Preferential Countries. He has also been deputy director general of Foreign Policy for the Middle East and deputy director general of the Diplomatic Information Office.
Abroad, he has been counselor at the Spanish Embassy in Israel and has held the post of Second Chief of Staff at the Spanish Embassy in Lebanon and at the Spanish Embassy in Guatemala. On two occasions (1996-2000 and 2006-2011) he has been counselor at the Permanent Representation of Spain to the European Union. He has also been ambassador of Spain to the Republic of Guinea (2011-2014) and ambassador of Spain to Tunisia (2018-2022).
Ardizone replaces Federico de Torres Muro, who, as The Diplomat had advanced, has been appointed ambassador permanent representative of Spain to the NATO Council. Born in 1957 and a member of the Diplomatic Career since 1985, Torres has been posted to the Spanish Embassies in Libya, Argentina and Morocco, to the Permanent Representation of Spain to the Council of Europe and to the Consulate General of Spain in London. He has also been Spain’s ambassador to Ecuador and El Salvador.
In the central services, he has been director of the Technical Cabinet of AECID, director of the Cabinet of the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and Ibero-America, director of the Cabinet of the Secretary General of the Presidency, director general of Strategy, Prospective and Coherence and, since September 2021, director general of Foreign and Security Policy. He holds, among other national and foreign decorations, the Cross of the Order of Military Merit with white badge, the Officer of the Order of Civil Merit and the Officer of the Order of Isabella the Catholic.
Torres replaces Miguel Fernandez-Palacios, the new Spanish Ambassador to Rome, at NATO. Born in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and a member of the Diplomatic Career since 1994, between 2006 and 2008 he was ambassador of Spain to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and between 2011 and 2015, ambassador of Spain to Ethiopia, as well as permanent observer permanent representative to the African Union. In July 2018 he was appointed ambassador permanent representative of Spain to the Atlantic Council (NATO). In Madrid, he has served in the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Defense (director general of the Minister’s Cabinet), as well as in the Congress of Deputies (director general of the Cabinet of the Presidency). He is the holder of several decorations, among them that of Knight of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic (2008).
Continuing with this chain of relays, Fernández-Palacios replaces Alfonso Dastis, who has been appointed Ambassador of Spain to Hungary. Born in Jerez de la Frontera and a member of the Diplomatic Career since 1983, he has held various positions in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and in the Presidency of the Government, but the most important was that of Minister of Foreign Affairs between November 2016 and June 2018, during the last government of Mariano Rajoy. He has also been Spain’s ambassador to the Netherlands, ambassador permanent representative to the European Union and, until now, Spain’s ambassador to Italy.
On the other hand, Javier Puig is the new Spanish ambassador to Tunisia, as The Diplomat had also announced. Born in Mahón and a member of the Diplomatic Career since 2002, since 2017 and until now he held the post of deputy director general for the Maghreb in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He has been stationed at the Spanish embassies in Tunisia as a counselor, in Morocco as embassy secretary and in Guatemala and Vietnam as second-in-command.
