<h6><strong>Eduardo González</strong></h6> <h4><strong>King Felipe VI will receive this week the Letters of Credence of six new ambassadors and will offer, together with the Queen, the traditional annual reception to the Diplomatic Corps accredited in Spain on the occasion of the new year.</strong></h4> According to the Royal House, the King will receive this Wednesday at the Royal Palace in Madrid the Letters of Credence of the new ambassadors of the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland, Alexander Wykeham Ellis; Canada, Jeffrey Kevin Marder; Panama, Héctor Ernesto Infante de Sedas; Gabon, Allegra Pamela R. Bongo; Malta, Emmanuel Mallia; and Greece, Aglaia Balta. The Letters of Credence are the document that accredits a foreign ambassador as the representative and highest diplomatic authority of another country in Spain. The ceremony of delivery before the head of state dates back to the 18th century, and has remained practically intact in its development to this day. The following day, Don Felipe and Doña Letizia will receive at the Royal Palace in Madrid, as every year, the Diplomatic Corps accredited in Spain, made up in total of 126 Embassies resident in our country and almost 800 Consulates, 153 career and more than 600 honorary. In addition, another 49 countries are accredited to Spain, but have residence in Paris, London, Brussels or Geneva. On the other hand, 42 international organizations have headquarters in Spain. The diplomat, recalled Casa Real, is the public official expert in international relations with a view to being accredited to other States and also to International Organizations with a representative character. States organize their diplomacy in different ways, according to their administrative traditions or their concept of how foreign affairs should be conducted. In the Kingdom of Spain, following the Latin tradition, the diplomatic profession is structured around a general body - the Diplomatic Corps - which belongs to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and uses officials from other bodies belonging to those Ministries (Defense, Culture, Trade, etc.) that, due to their activities, have a foreign sector abroad. According to the newspaper Confidencial Digital, the King has brought forward this year his traditional reception of the Diplomatic Corps, which usually takes place at the end of the first month of the year, due to the busy schedule of the King and Queen throughout this month of January and the interest of the Royal House in not postponing to February a meeting in which the Monarch takes advantage of the opportunity to wish the diplomatic representatives a happy new year and to review the main issues of Spanish foreign policy in the following twelve months. This advance, according to the newspaper, will prevent some ambassadors from attending the reception because they are outside Spain, so they will be represented by their respective chargés d'affaires. The fact that the King receives the Credentials the day before will allow the six new ambassadors to attend the reception of the Diplomatic Corps, since this event is reserved for formally accredited representatives, regardless of whether they have actually assumed their post after presenting the Style Copies of their Credentials, something they usually do as soon as they arrive in Spain.
