Albares warns against “polarization” at a low-key Ibero-American Summit

Eduardo González King Felipe VI and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, attended the inauguration of the XXIX Ibero-American Summit of Heads of State and Government on Thursday, which is being held in Cuenca (Ecuador) and which is characterized, above all, by the absence of all the presidents of the region, except for the host, the Ecuadorian Daniel Noboa. In this context, the head of Spanish diplomacy urged his counterparts in the region to “strengthen the community” and “flee from polarization.” The inauguration ceremony took place on Thursday night (early Friday morning) at the Pumapungo Museum Theater, the venue of the Summit. The King was accompanied by José Manuel Albares, who is participating as the highest representative of the Government, after the head of the Executive, Pedro Sánchez, announced last week that he would not travel to Ecuador to closely follow the DANA crisis. Sánchez is not the only relevant absence from the Summit and, in fact, there are many more absent leaders than those present. As heads of State, only the European leaders are in Cuenca: Felipe VI (who will attend this Friday the transfer of the Secretariat pro Tempore, which will pass from Ecuador to Spain until the next Summit in 2026), the president of Portugal, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, and the head of Government, Xavier Espot. As for the Latin American leaders, only one is attending, the one who could not be absent in any case: the president of Ecuador, Daniel Noboa. The rest of the so-called Ibero-American Community, without exception, has chosen to be absent from this Summit, for one reason or another. Until the very last minute, Ecuador had the presence of only six leaders, counting the four mentioned and including the presidents of Paraguay, Santiago Peña; and the Dominican Republic, Luis Abinader. With that figure alone, Ecuador had the dubious honour of being the one that would bring together the fewest leaders in the history of these Summits (even worse than those of 2013, in Panama, and 2016, in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, the worst to date), but things have worsened even more in the last few hours. First of all, Luis Abinader, despite his presence having been confirmed almost from the beginning after his country hosted the 2023 Summit (attended by 16 leaders, 14 heads of state and two of government), has announced his absence, as has Santiago Peña, who has been the last to cancel the trip, in this case due to the “unstable” political and social scenario in Ecuador, according to sources from the Presidency. As for the rest, the president of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, will not attend after her country broke diplomatic relations with Ecuador in response to Noboa’s order to assault the Mexican Embassy in Quito to arrest former Ecuadorian vice president Jorge Glas – convicted of corruption and who had received political asylum from the Mexican authorities – which occurred last April. Apart from Mexico, Venezuela and Nicaragua (which have also broken relations with Ecuador for the same reason) have not even sent a representative (apart from Ecuador recognizing the opposition candidate Edmundo González Urrutia as president-elect). For her part, the president of Honduras, Xiomara Castro, is also not attending in solidarity with Mexico. For their part, the presidents of Peru and Chile, Dina Boluarte and Gabriel Boric, have preferred to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting, which is being held on these same dates in Lima and in which the presidents of the United States and China, Joe Biden and Xi Jinping, will hold their third bilateral meeting. Miguel Díaz-Canel, from Cuba (faced with blackouts, hurricanes and tropical storms in his country), and Luis Arce, from Bolivia (in the midst of a confrontation with former president Evo Morales to lead the presidential candidacy of the Movement Towards Socialism, MAS), have resigned due to their internal problems. Neither the Salvadoran president Nayib Bukele (in fact, he did not attend the two previous Summits) nor the Costa Rican Rodrigo Chaves. Colombian President Gustavo Petro was also absent, despite his presence being expected out of simple reciprocity, after Noboa’s participation in the United Nations Conference on Biodiversity in Cali. He ultimately preferred not to travel in order to closely follow the floods in Chocó (in a case similar to Sánchez’s, since, like him, he did participate in COP29 in Azerbaijan). Argentine President Javier Milei (who had also confirmed his attendance) travelled to the United States to meet with President-elect Donald Trump. Meanwhile, Brazilian President Luis Inázio Lula da Silva was absent from Ecuador to prepare for the G20 Summit, which will be held next week in Rio de Janeiro. Felipe VI Upon his arrival at the airport in Cuenca, located in the southern Ecuadorian Andes, Felipe VI was received by the governor of the Azuay region, Luis Santiago Malo; the ambassador of Spain in Ecuador, Enrique Erik Yturriaga; the director of Protocol of the Republic of Ecuador, Verónica Peña; and the head of the military region, Manuel Dávila, among other authorities. Later, he was received by Daniel Noboa at the “La Gloria” Sports Complex, where he inaugurated the sixteenth soccer school, the result of the alliance between the Guayaquil Charity Board and Atlético de Madrid and which has granted scholarships to more than 10,000 children and young people from vulnerable sectors of the country. The Monarch also attended, within the Ibero-American Disability Program (PID), the launch of the Ibero-American Disability Card, an instrument that will offer a regional framework for the recognition of rights for people with disabilities in Ibero-America. The King then held a bilateral meeting with the President of Portugal Later, and before the opening ceremony of the XXIX Ibero-American Summit, the King and Albares attended the XV Ibero-American Business Meeting, a forum that brings together business leaders from the Ibero-American community and which takes place in parallel to the political meetings. Spain participated in this meeting with 180 businessmen (the country with the greatest participation), represented by the presidents of CEOE, CEPYME, ATA and the Confederation of Young Entrepreneurs of Spain. During the closing ceremony of the Meeting, the King said a few words in which he stated that it is necessary to "go further in the economic integration between the EU and Latin America" and, therefore, "move towards a greater unification of the value chains, and this fundamentally involves the conclusion of more modern trade agreements, such as that between the EU and Mercosur; through greater productive investment that generates employment and value, which allows the development of new technologies in the region; and through helping each other to establish secure supply chains in which Latin America can play a key role." At the Ibero-American Business Meeting – inaugurated the previous day – four major themes were addressed (employability and inclusion, sustainability, gender and innovation) and the “Manifesto for employability: for a fairer Ibero-America” was adopted. The meeting was organized by the Ibero-American General Secretariat (SEGIB), the Ibero-American Business Council (CEIB) and the National Federation of Chambers of Industry of Ecuador, in collaboration with the International Organization of Employers-OIE and the Ibero-American Federation of Young Entrepreneurs-FIJE, with the support of ICEX Export and Investment. At the end of the meeting, the pro tempore presidency of the CEIB was handed over to the president of the CEOE, Antonio Garamendi, which was made official by the permanent secretary of the institution, Narciso Casado. The day concluded with the opening ceremony of the XXIX Ibero-American Summit of Heads of State and Government, upon whose arrival Felipe VI was received by Daniel Noboa, the First Lady, Lavinia Valbonesi, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Gabriela Sommerfeld. During the ceremony, the President and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ecuador and the Mayor of Cuenca, Cristian Zamora, spoke. Albares Albares’ agenda included a meeting of Ibero-American Foreign Ministers, chaired by the Ecuadorian Foreign Minister, Gabriela Sommerfeld. During his speech, the head of Spanish diplomacy urged the Ibero-American foreign ministers to “strengthen the community” and “flee from polarization,” which “only contributes to distracting us from the work we can and must do.” “We owe it to our societies,” continued Albares, who warned of the need to “not backtrack on some of the great consensus achieved over decades,” such as “equality, sustainability or solidarity.” On the sidelines of the Summit, Albares signed with Sommersfeld the Joint Commission Minutes that give life to the new Spain-Ecuador Country Association Framework 2024-2028, which will guide Spanish Cooperation in Ecuador for the next four years. At the meeting, which was also attended by the director of the AECID, Antón Leis, Albares recalled that Ecuador is a “priority country for our cooperation”, as stated in the Master Plan for Sustainable Development and Global Solidarity 2024-2027. The Spain-Ecuador Association Framework (2024-2028) prioritizes four main areas of work: gender equality and the inclusion of vulnerable groups, the promotion of rural territorial development, action for the climate and the ecological transition, and the quality and performance of Public Administration systems. Following the signing of the Country Partnership Framework, to which 101 million euros will be allocated over those four years, Minister Albares and his counterpart signed an agreement for the promotion of Spanish in international organisations.

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