The Diplomat
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, will make his first official bilateral visit to Germany today, where he will be received by his counterpart, Annalena Baerbock, and will address the European Affairs Committee of the Bundestag.
According to Foreign Ministry sources informed The Diplomat, in addition to his speech in the Lower House of the German Parliament and his meeting with Baerbok, Albares will also be received by the Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development, the Social Democrat Svenja Schulze, and will address the conference of German ambassadors accredited to EU countries.
Albares has already visited Germany several times since his appointment as minister, but this is his first bilateral visit. The minister has participated in the Munich Security Conferences of February 2022 (a few days before the Russian invasion of Ukraine) and February 2023 (on this occasion, he was also received by Svenja Schulze). He also participated in an informal NATO meeting in Berlin in May 2022.
In addition, José Manuel Albares received Annalena Baerbok at the ministerial headquarters of the Palacio de Viana in Madrid on February 15, 2022. The two ministers have obviously coincided in bilateral and multi-lateral meetings, such as the NATO Summit in Madrid in June 2022; the XXV Spanish-German Summit, held in October 2022 in A Coruña; or the various EU ministerial councils.
Albares’ presence in Germany will coincide with the celebration, at the German Ramstein Air Base, of the eleventh ministerial-level meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, convened by the U.S. Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, which will be attended by the Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, days after receiving in Madrid her Ukrainian counterpart, Oleksii Reznikov, and having a videoconference with Lloyd Austin.
