Iceland prepares to open its Embassy in Spain in 2025

Luis Ayllón The Government of Iceland is preparing the opening of an Embassy in Madrid in 2025, as Icelandic and Spanish sources have confirmed to The Diplomat. On July 11, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, met during the NATO summit in Washington with his Icelandic colleague, Thordis Kolbrun, and on his social network account bilateral relations and that these will be reinforced with the opening of the Icelandic Embassy in Madrid. On the same social network, the Icelandic minister announced that the opening of the Embassy will take place next year and will be a reflection of the deepening of ties between the two countries, “based - she wrote verbatim - on our shared interest, values and a long and unique history related to cod and wine, of course.” A week later, it was the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, who met in London with the Icelandic Prime Minister, Bjarni Benediktsson, whom he thanked for the opening of the Embassy "a symptom - he said - of the good moment that relations between our two countries are going through. countries". Sánchez added that there is great room to further improve economic and commercial relations between the two countries, in sectors such as tourism, renewable energy and the fishing industry. Spain and Iceland formally established diplomatic relations in 1949. On the Spanish side, it is the ambassador to Norway who is accredited in Iceland, although since June 2019, our country has a “diplomatic antenna” deployed in Reykjavík. In May 2022, diplomat José Carlos Esteso assumed the position as chargé d'affaires ad interim. Currently, the person responsible for Icelandic affairs in our country is the ambassador to France, Unnur Orradóttir Ramette, who has resided in Paris since June 2022 and who is also accredited in Spain. A member of the diplomatic representation has traveled to Spain on several occasions, but without maintaining excessive contacts with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In addition, Iceland has an honorary Consulate General in Madrid, headed by Iñigo Ortega Urretavizcay; and another in Barcelona, headed by Eva Bretos. Despite the Icelandic announcement to open a resident Embassy in Madrid, by the Spanish Government, there is no intention at this time to elevate the current “diplomatic antenna” to Embassy status.

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