Luis Ayllón
The absence of dates for the presentation of Letters of Credence to His Majesty the King is worrying the seventeen foreign ambassadors accredited in Spain who have already handed in their Copias de Estilo, some of whom arrived in Madrid more than half a year ago, as The Diplomat has learned.
The concern stems from the fact that no convincing explanation has been given by the Government for the delay in organising the ceremony to allow them to hand over their Letters of Credence to the head of State. Many of them fear that, even if a date is set soon, it will be very difficult for them to arrive in time to be present at the King’s traditional reception for the Diplomatic Corps, for which there is little more than a month to go. Until they present their credentials, ambassadors cannot attend ceremonies presided over by the King.
As The Diplomat has learned from reliable sources, the Royal Household has shown on several occasions that the King is willing to receive the Letters of Credence of the ambassadors who have not yet been able to do so, but the Ministry has not yet set a date. Among the ambassadors affected, there is considerable surprise -and, in some cases, unease- about the situation, because they consider that, although the Government has been in office for many months due to the electoral processes and the negotiations for the investiture of the president, the King has not been in office, and the delivery of the Credentials could have been arranged at some point.
In principle, according to the sources consulted, before the reception of the Diplomatic Corps takes place in the last week of January, one or two ceremonies for the presentation of Credentials could be organised, starting on 6 January, the date of the celebration of Military Easter.
However, even if there were to be two ceremonies, it would not be possible for the 17 ambassadors who have already submitted Copias de Estilo to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, including some from countries that are currently so important for Spanish foreign policy, such as Italy, China and Iran, to take part in the reception for the Diplomatic Corps.
Normally, the presentation of Credentials is organised in batches of six or seven ambassadors -following a rigorous order of arrival in our country– so three ceremonies would be necessary for all of them to be able to participate in the reception.
The last time there was a ceremony for the presentation of Letters of Credence at the Royal Palace was on 17 May. Some of the ambassadors who have not yet been able to present their accreditations to the head of state were already in Madrid. Specifically, those of North Macedonia, Edmond Ademi; Peru, Walter Gutiérrez; El Salvador, Joaquín Alexander Maza Martelli; Iran, Reza Zabib; and Thailand, Vosita Vorasaph.
In addition, the ambassadors of Italy, Giuseppe María Buccino Grimaldi; Angola, Alfredo Dombe; and Vietnam, Dohn Hanh Song, all of whom arrived in Madrid in June; as well as those of Mozambique, Eugenio Agostinho Langa, who arrived in July; and of the Czech Republic, Libor Sečka, who arrived in August, are awaiting to be summoned.
In the same situation are the ambassadors of Costa Rica, Adriana Bolaños Argueta; of Turkey, Nüket Küçükel Ezberci; of Jordan, Raghad A. Alsaqqa; and from Mauritania, Zeineb Ely Salem, all of whom arrived in September.
After the summer came the new Chinese ambassador, Yao Jing, who has been in Madrid since the beginning of October; the ambassador of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Vesna Andree-Zaimovic, who arrived a little later that month; and the last to present Copias de Estilo, the ambassador of Cape Verde, Eduardo Jorge Silva, who arrived in early December.
They will soon be joined by several others, such as the new ambassador of Algeria, Abdelfetá Daghmun, who has been in Madrid since last Thursday.
