The Diplomat
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has created new honorary consulates in Mataram and Surabaya (Indonesia) and in Yuba, the capital of South Sudan, as set out in two ministerial orders published in the Official State Gazette (BOE) on Friday.
The two new honorary consular offices in Indonesia, which join the existing one in Bali, will be attached to the Spanish Embassy in Jakarta.
The Honorary Consulate in Mataram will cover the province of the Lesser Sunda Islands and the one in Surabaya will cover the province of East Java.
The order published in the BOE states, in the justification of the reasons for the creation of the new honorary consulates, that the Republic of Indonesia, with an area of 1,904,569 square kilometres and 280 million inhabitants spread over more than 17,000 islands, requires, for the proper provision of consular services and for the promotion of relations between Spain and that country, a network of Honorary Consular Offices to support the Spanish Embassy in Jakarta, which currently has only one Honorary Consular Office in Bali.
The order adds that the objective of this network is twofold. “On the one hand,” it explains, “consular emergency assistance, which is more efficient when there is a local liaison that can deal with the most urgent matters, especially in a country like the Republic of Indonesia, located in the so-called ‘Pacific Ring of Fire’, with areas of intense seismic activity that cause frequent volcanic eruptions and increase the risk of tsunamis. “On the other hand, the Honorary Consular Posts play an important role in political, institutional, cultural and economic relations.
The two new Honorary Consulates were created to develop this network. The one in Mataram is created taking into account that the province of the Western Lesser Sunda Islands (Nusa Tenggara Barat) is part of the Indonesian project for the creation of development poles, specifically through the “Ten New Bali” initiative, which seeks the tourist and economic development of the region, which will attract both tourism and Spanish investment.
Surabaya is the second largest city in Indonesia and the capital of the province of East Java, one of the country’s main economic centres. Numerous Member States of the European Union have Career or Honorary Consular Offices in Surabaya, which, together with the frequent transit of Spaniards, whether for business or tourism, motivates the creation of the Consulate.
In addition, the order stresses that two Special Economic Zones have been created in the province of East Java for its economic development, including a digital development pole, which will attract direct foreign investment from numerous companies, including Spanish ones, for which it is necessary to have an institutional presence in the area to promote the interests of our country.
Consular Office in Juba
The BOE also published the creation of an Honorary Consular Office in Juba, the capital of South Sudan, a country in which Spain has no embassy, so that the Consulate – which will have a circumscription in the regions of Bahr el Ghazal, Equatoria, and Greater Upper Nile – will depend on the diplomatic representation in Khartoum, the capital of Sudan.
The ministerial order creating the Honorary Consulate indicates that the presence of an important Spanish community in the country, mainly made up of people dedicated to development cooperation, either through non-governmental organisations or international organisations, makes it necessary to speed up the consular attention provided to this community.
He adds that, in addition, the presence of an Honorary Consular Agent on the ground will greatly benefit the interlocution with the South Sudanese authorities.
