Luis Ayllón
At least a dozen foreign ambassadors accredited in Madrid and who have been in our country for months will be able to present Letters of Credence to the King in the month of January, with time to be present at the traditional reception of the head of State to the Diplomatic Corps. which will be held in the last days of the month.
As The Diplomat learned from diplomatic sources, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has organized, in agreement with the King’s House, two ceremonies for the delivery of Letters of Credence at the Royal Palace, for the 12th and 17th. With this, it will begin to put an end to the “backlog” that has formed of ambassadors waiting to present their Letters of Credence to the Monarch.
Currently, around twenty ambassadors who have already arrived in Spain and have presented their Copies at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, are waiting to be able to deliver their Letters of Credence, something that is necessary to be able to be present at the events in which the head of state is present.
The absence of dates to be able to conclude the process that allows them to fully carry out their work in Spain has caused concern among the ambassadors, some of whom have been in our country for more than half a year, and do not understand the reasons why they have not been held. the ceremonies for the delivery of Credential Letters, since the interim period experienced by the Government due to the electoral processes was not applicable to the King. Reliable sources indicated to The Diplomat that the Royal Family had shown on several occasions the Monarch’s availability to receive the Credential Letters of the ambassadors, but the Ministry had not yet finalized a date.
Now two days have been sought for the delivery of Letters of Credence, within the agenda of Felipe VI in January, which in that month has the Military Easter on the 6th and perhaps – although it has not yet been confirmed – a trip to Guatemala to attend around the 14th, the inauguration of the new president of that country, Bernardo Arévalo. Before the traditional reception to the Diplomatic Corps, which could be between January 29 and 31, the dates that are free in that agenda, where there are also other commitments, would be the 12th and 17th.
Given that six or seven ambassadors are summoned to the ceremonies for the delivery of Credential Letters, with each of whom the King speaks for a few moments, the normal thing is that there will be twelve or fourteen who will already be in a position to attend the reception at Diplomatic Corps, which will take place in the last week of January.
As The Diplomat reported on December 18, there were 17 ambassadors accredited to Spain who had delivered their Copies, although a few days later at least two others were added: those from Algeria and Albania.
The last ceremony for the presentation of Credential Letters took place on May 23, the date on which the ambassadors of North Macedonia, Edmond Ademi, were already in Madrid; Peru, Walter Gutiérrez; El Salvador, Joaquín Alexander Maza Martelli; Iran, Reza Zabib; and Thailand, Vosita Vorasaph.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has not yet determined which ambassadors will be present at each of the ceremonies, but the call is normally made following a strict order of arrival in Spain, so that the five mentioned will certainly be present at the first ceremony. scheduled for Friday, the 12th, as well as the Italian ambassador, Giuseppe María Buccino Grimaldi, who arrived in Madrid on June 1.
The second ceremony, on Wednesday the 17th, will be attended by some of the ambassadors who arrived later and who were not included in the first, such as, at least, those from Angola, Alfredo Dombe; Vietnam, Dohn Hanh Song; Mozambique, Eugenio Agostinho Langa, Czech Republic, Libor Sečka; Costa Rica, Adriana Bolaños Argueta; and Türkiye, Nüket Küçükel Ezberci. If the ceremonies were for seven ambassadors each, the ambassadors of Jordan, Raghad A. Alsaqqa, would also enter; and from Mauritania, Zeineb Ely Salem.
However, the ambassadors who arrived later in Spain would be left out of these two ceremonies. That would affect China’s Ya Jing, which arrived in October; to the ambassador of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Vesna Andree-Zaimovic, to the ambassador of Cape Verde, Eduardo Jorge Silva; and the last two to do so, in mid-December: the ambassador of Algeria, Abdelfetá Daghmun; and the ambassador of Albania, Entela Gjika.
