Luis Ayllón
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, has instructed all ambassadors abroad to be present on 10 and 11 January at the 8th Conference of Ambassadors, to be held in Madrid, diplomatic sources told The Diplomat.
The meeting, which will take place at the headquarters of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in the Plaza del Marqués de Salamanca, will be inaugurated on Wednesday, the 10th, by the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, and closed on Thursday, the 11th, by His Majesty the King.
Although the programme has not yet been finalised, it is expected that some of the Vice-Presidents of the Executive and other ministers, including José Manuel Albares, will speak during the two days.
The new Secretaries of State of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who are expected to be appointed tomorrow at the Council of Ministers, will also speak, following the announcement of the departure to the embassies in the United States, Germany and Portugal of the current incumbents: Ángeles Moreno, Pascual Navarro and Juan Fernández Trigo. The fourth Secretary of State, Eva Granados, who replaced Pilar Cancela in International Cooperation, will also speak at the Conference, as will the department’s Undersecretary, Luis Cuesta, and several senior officials from the Ministry.
The 118 ambassadors and 11 permanent representatives in international organisations that Spain has around the world have been invited to the event, who will attend the general sessions and will also work in working groups corresponding to the different regional areas.
The Conference will serve to coordinate the strategic priorities of the foreign policy that the government intends to develop, a few weeks after confirming the continuity of both President Pedro Sánchez and Minister Albares.
The Ambassadors’ Conferences, a model that is used in many neighbouring countries, began in 2001 with the government of José María Aznar and for a time were held annually. In 2008, when José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero was head of government, they ceased to be held, among other reasons, because of the cost of transferring all the ambassadors to Spain at a time of economic crisis.
González Laya convened the 2021 Conference with the intention of recovering the annual frequency, but due to the persistence of restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic, only a few were able to come to Madrid and the rest had to follow the meetings by videoconference. In 2022, the meeting was not convened and in 2023, Albares brought it back. They are usually held at the beginning of the year, to take advantage of the fact that many ambassadors are already in Spain for a few days of Christmas holidays.
