The Diplomat
The Board of Trustees of the Spain-Japan Council Foundation elected last Monday the CEO of Fujitsu in Spain, Ángeles Delgado, as its new president, replacing Josep Piqué, who has been at the head of the Foundation since 2010.
The new president said, according to the organization in a press release, that she accepts the position “with absolute commitment and at a very important moment of opportunity”, with a bilateral relationship of four centuries that lays an important foundation “for the future, at a time of change like the one we are living through”.
Ángeles Delgado pointed out that “geopolitical criteria are once again on the table in many areas, such as science and technology”. She also stressed that “there are expectations that the business dynamism between Spain and Japan will increase, so we have to be ambitious in an increasingly strategic relationship”.
The Board of Trustees, at its second General Meeting of 2022, agreed to name Josep Piqué Honorary President, in recognition of his work and the impetus he has given to the Spain Japan Forum. The former Minister of Foreign Affairs had held the position since 2010, when he took over from Antonio Garrigues Walker, the Foundation’s first president. Josep Piqué was unable to attend the meeting due to illness.
The Board of Trustees also agreed to appoint Lucía Los Arcos, director of Institutional Relations and Communications at Bergé y Compañía, as vice-president of the Foundation.
The new Japanese ambassador to Spain, Takahiro Nakamae, also joined the Board of Trustees, in what was his first official act in the position. In addition, the appointment of Ramón María Moreno as the new Secretary General was approved.
University of Salamanca and Iberdrola join the Foundation
The Meeting also served to welcome the University of Salamanca and Iberdrola, who are joining the Foundation’s Board of Trustees.
The University of Salamanca was represented by its rector, Ricardo Rivero, and by the director of its Spanish-Japanese Cultural Center, José Abel Flores. The university was already a Patron of the Foundation between 2016 and 2017, and is once again part of the Board of Trustees to give a boost to its commitment to Japan.
Rector Rivero noted that the university’s intention is to “maintain its cultural, scientific and academic projection with all the Japanese universities where we have a link.” In 2023, the University of Salamanca plans to hold a series of activities around a Year of Japan.
Iberdrola, one of Spain’s leading energy companies, has a growing presence in Japan in the renewables sector. In 2020, it acquired local developer Acacia Renewables. A year later, it announced the development of a 600 MW offshore wind project in the country.
José Manuel Rodríguez Martínez, the company’s Global Director of Government and Institutional Affairs, pointed out that his company has always “understood its international expansion as a very important public-private collaboration opportunity”, and that the Foundation’s Board of Trustees “symbolizes the opportunities and synergies that make opportunities for cooperation arise between the two areas”.
Salamanca, venue of the XXIII Spain-Japan Forum
The Board of Trustees also approved the choice of Salamanca as the venue for the XXIII Spain Japan Forum. Salamanca already hosted the Forum in its fifth edition, in 2001. Next year it will once again host the main public diplomacy event between the two countries, with the support of the University of Salamanca.
Ángeles Delgado will also assume the Spanish co-presidency of the Forum, replacing Josep Piqué.
Spain last hosted the Forum in 2019, in Castellón de la Plana. After a hiatus forced by the pandemic, and holding a digital edition in between, the Forum returned to be held in person this year in Kyoto.
2023: towards the strengthening of Spain-Japan relations
The Foundation’s Board of Trustees opted to strengthen bilateral relations in 2023, after a year of reunion in which the resumption of international travel made it possible to recover face-to-face contacts.
Ambassador Nakamae pointed out that bilateral relations “have been reflecting the change in the strategic locations of both countries in the global context”, which is why collaboration between the government and private sectors is increasingly necessary”.
For his part, the Spanish Ambassador to Japan, Fidel Sendagorta, pointed out that 2023 will be important in that “the main lines of what in 2022 are already envisioned as priorities for bilateral relations” will take shape. Among other areas, he highlighted the fields of defense and science as particularly promising.
The Director General for North America, Eastern Europe, Asia and the Pacific of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Javier Salido, valued very positively the holding of bilateral political consultations last October, coinciding with the Spain-Japan Forum. Among the many areas of collaboration that both parties explored, Salido highlighted “cooperation in third countries, in geographical areas such as Latin America, Africa or Asia”.
