The Diplomat
King Felipe VI inaugurated yesterday, for the fifth consecutive year, the Forum La Toja-Vínculo Atlántico, which is held for three days on the island of La Toja (O Grove, Pontevedra) and in which the Monarch paid tribute to the figure of former Foreign Minister Josep Piqué, who died last April, a “statesman” who consecrated the Forum “since its inception” as “a place of meeting and debate with international vocation”.
The event, held at the Gran Hotel La Toja Convention Center, began with the projection of a video tribute to Josep Piqué and the presentation of the III Forum La Toja Award, renamed this year as Josep Piqué-Foro La Toja Award and that the jury has decided unanimously to award to the Association of Afghan Women in Spain. The award was presented by the King to the president of the Association, Sunita Nasir Tareen.
Afterwards, Felipe VI took the floor to add, “first of all”, to the “tribute that so justly deserves the figure of Josep Piqué”, former president and promoter of the Forum. “I do so not only for his decisive role in the development and implementation of this Forum that brings us together today (the first time since he is no longer with us), but also for his extensive and brilliant career of public service,” he said.
“As a statesman, he was always characterized by his entire willingness to listen to all points of view and his determined commitment to understanding and to the search for solutions based on reason,” he continued. “The La Toja Forum was his space, to which he was devoted from its inception,” the King recalled. “He conceived it as a place for meeting and debate, friendly and relaxed, with an international vocation, from which to contribute to the shaping of a multilateral world, to the consolidation of the open societies that have been developing on both sides of the Atlantic and to the strengthening of Spain’s role in the world,” he added.
Felipe VI also congratulated the Association of Afghan Women in Spain, “who have been awarded this year and conveyed to them all our admiration and solidarity for their determination to regain their right to learn and for not accepting unjust discrimination”.
The Monarch also highlighted the program prepared for this year’s Forum, which “perfectly reflects the interests and concerns of our changing, complex and constantly evolving societies: the future of globalization, the meaning of data and Artificial Intelligence (AI), the new world geopolitics and the role of Spain in the world, democracy and governance in diverse societies, or fiscal rules”.
