Luis Ayllón
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, was not present yesterday at the presentation of Letters of Credence to the King by the new Ambassador of Algeria, Abdelfetá Daghmun, and five other ambassadors: those of Albania, Uzbekistan, Panama, Serbia and Ecuador.
The ceremony, as is traditional, took place in the Royal Palace, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was represented by the department’s Undersecretary, Luis Cuesta. The ceremony began at half past ten in the morning, without the presence of Minister Albares, who, at eleven o’clock, took part in the presentation at the Ministry’s headquarters of a report drawn up by the ONCE Social Group on the progress made in the field of disability during the Spanish Presidency of the European Union.
Although it is not unusual for the Minister of Foreign Affairs not to be present at a presentation of Letters of Credence, normally because he is away from Spain on an official trip or at an international meeting, diplomatic circles consulted by The Diplomat found Albares’ decision to attend the ONCE event rather than the ceremony at the Royal Palace somewhat strange.
The same media highlighted the fact that one of the ambassadors who presented Letters of Credence was the Algerian ambassador, appointed in November last year by the Algerian government, in a gesture that put an end to almost 20 months of diplomatic crisis. In March 2019, Algeria recalled the previous ambassador, Said Moussi, for consultations in protest at the turnaround by the government of Pedro Sánchez with regard to Western Sahara, backing the autonomy plan proposed by Morocco.
Following the appointment of Abdelfetá Daghmun as the new ambassador, Albares was scheduled to visit Algeria on 12 February to stage the reconciliation. However, the previous day it was announced that the visit had been formally ‘postponed’ due to ‘scheduling problems’ on the part of the Algerian authorities, although so far there has been no news of a new date.
Some media tried to explain the reasons for the cancellation of the trip and, specifically, El Confidencial, published that it was because the Spanish minister wanted his meetings with the Algerian authorities to discuss only bilateral and economic matters, but not Western Sahara, something the government of Abdelmajid Tebboune did not accept.
In any case, yesterday the new ambassador completed his accreditation process in Spain, and spoke for several minutes with His Majesty the King, as is customary after the presentation of the Letters of Credence by each ambassador.
Albania, Uzbekistan, Panama, Serbia and Ecuador
After the Ambassador of Algeria, five other ambassadors who have arrived in Spain in recent months presented their accreditation documents to the Head of State.
The first to do so was the Ambassador of Albania, Entela Gjika, followed by the Ambassador of Uzbekistan, Farruj Tursunov.
They were followed by the new ambassadors of Panama, Ytzel Anays Patiño, Serbia, Irena Sarac, and Ecuador, Wilma Piedad Andrade Muñoz.
Don Felipe spoke with all of them for a few minutes, and it is not unlikely that, in the case of the new Ecuadorian Head of Mission, the King commented on the diplomatic crisis between Ecuador and Mexico, following the entry of the Andean country’s police into the Mexican Embassy in Quito to arrest the former Ecuadorian Vice-President, Jorge Glas. El Gobierno español hizo un llamamiento el pasado fin de semana ala concordia entre “dos paìses hermanos de España”
This was the fourth ceremony of delivery of Letters of Credence held so far this year, after the Government, in the midst of electoral processes and the formation of a new Cabinet, did not schedule any of them in the second half of 2023. A total of 24 new ambassadors have presented their Credentials at the 2024 ceremonies.
