The Diplomat
The Council of Ministers on Tuesday appointed José Antonio Hernández Pérez-Solórzano as ambassador to Moldova, who will carry out this function from his post as ambassador to Romania, to which he acceded at the end of September last year.
Although Moldova opened an embassy in Madrid in June 2010, Spain has not yet taken the step of doing the same in Chisinau, the Moldovan capital, and continues to have its ambassador in Bucharest accredited in Moldova.
However, in June last year, following a visit to Moldova, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced the opening of a diplomatic antenna in Chisinau, which took shape shortly afterwards with the dispatch to the Moldovan capital of diplomat Juan Antonio Martín Burgos, albeit with a very limited infrastructure.
The Moldovan authorities have been urging Spain for some time to open an embassy in their country, a request that has become more pressing since Russia began its invasion of Ukraine, a country bordering Moldova. On 24 January, after receiving his Moldovan counterpart Nicu Popescu in Madrid, Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares announced that the government would take steps to convert the current diplomatic antenna into an embassy in Chisinau.
For the moment, however, there has been no movement to indicate that such an opening will take place immediately, although the current head of the diplomatic antenna plans to leave his post in June and it has not been put out to tender in the process of awarding diplomatic posts that is currently underway.
The latter circumstance could indicate that there is a desire to open the embassy soon, although this is a process that takes some time, given that it must first be provided for in terms of budget, which is not usually an easy task.
For the time being, the government has opted to proceed with the appointment of Hernández Pérez-Solórzano as Ambassador to Chisinau on multiple accreditation, and the diplomat will travel to the Moldovan capital to present his Letters of Credence to the Moldovan government.
