<h6><strong>Eduardo González</strong></h6> <h4><strong>The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, announced this Monday before the 130 Spanish ambassadors accredited throughout the world that his Department will present, in 2025, the next Foreign Action Strategy and will launch the new strategy for Asia.</strong></h4> “The new Spain Africa Strategy that we have just presented and the next Foreign Action Strategy that I announce we will present this year, accompanied by a new design and deployment of our network abroad, guide and accompany the new foreign policy that we are applying,” said Albares during the inauguration of the IX Conference of Ambassadors, held between Monday and Tuesday at the headquarters of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the Plaza del Marqués de Salamanca, in Madrid. <span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb">The Conference, held between Monday and Tuesday at the headquarters of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the Plaza del Marqués de Salamanca, in Madrid, will also feature speeches by the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez (who will open the session on Tuesday), and King Felipe VI, who will close the Conference.</span></span><span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb"> At this meeting, which is taking place under the motto “A foreign policy with its own identity” (one of the most used by Albares in recent times), the 130 Spanish ambassadors accredited throughout the world will reflect on the challenges of the international political situation in the new year.</span></span> “We are also beginning to develop a new strategy for Asia,” he continued. “The Indo-Pacific region is gradually consolidating itself as the new centre of gravity of international relations, both from an economic point of view, with three of the five largest economies in the world (China, Japan and India), and a political point of view, with the largest democracy in the world (India), and from a security point of view” and, in this regional context, “Spain has to assume a greater role in the region. This intention is clear and a priority,” added Albares, who recalled that, among the guests at the opening day of the Conference, is the Minister of Foreign Affairs of India, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar. During his speech, in which he reiterated the general lines of his Department that he had outlined on numerous occasions over the last few months, the Minister stated that “2025 is a crucial year for peace, democracy and justice in the world” and, therefore, “it must be a fruitful year for diplomacy in which our foreign policy with its own identity must continue to play the crucial role of recent years”. In this framework, he continued, “in 2025, Spanish diplomacy must contribute to the end of the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, so that just peace replaces weapons and destruction”, and must contribute to “continuing to build on what was achieved in 2024 to maintain a strong and united Europe and always with the priority of protecting Spaniards abroad”. <h5><strong>Middle East and Ukraine</strong></h5> At the regional level, Albares explained that the Ministry's “primary objective” in 2025 will be “to help the Palestinian Authority return as the sole Government for all Palestinian territories” - “To do this, and for the ceasefire to be maintained and the door to the reconstruction of Gaza to be opened, we need to maintain our commitment and advance a political perspective for the Palestinian State”, after its recognition by Spain in May 2024. Another objective, he continued, will be to accompany Ukraine “towards its future in peace and on its path towards the European Union” and warned that the fair peace process must start from two premises: “that nothing about Ukraine should or can be adopted without Ukraine and nothing about European security can be decided without Europe”. “The year 2025 will be a year that will mark the agendas of our collective security and our direction and our foreign policy must participate and decisively defend both”, he added. <h5><strong>European Union</strong></h5> Albares also stated that “the change in the European institutional cycle offers a good moment to reflect on the Europe we want: a social Europe as the foundation of a stronger, more prosperous and more cohesive European Union, a Europe that places citizens at the centre of the triple transition (digital, green and social) to make it possible without leaving anyone behind, in a more competitive, more democratic and fairer Union”. According to the minister, Spain will defend a European Union “open to the world, promoting an open strategic autonomy that allows us to work better with our partners, including the Southern Neighbourhood, Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America”. “Therefore, we will continue to support the deployment of the Global Gateway initiative in strategic countries and regions for Spain, and we will continue to work in favour of the ratification of the EU-Mercosur Agreement”, he added. In addition, he continued, Spain will defend an improvement with the EU's neighbours (“in our case, in the south”) to “reach broad agreements that allow us to jointly address” the “challenge posed by irregular migration, a phenomenon that we must manage while inequality on the border between Africa and Europe is the greatest on the planet”. <h5><strong>Latin America</strong></h5> Albares also insisted that “Latin America is a priority region of Spanish foreign policy” and maintains a “privileged relationship” with Spain that “must be worked on and cultivated continuously”. For this reason, apart from the current pro tempore secretariat of the Ibero-American Community, which will culminate “with the Summit of Heads of State and Government in 2026 in Spain,” the Government will promote bilateral relations “with each and every one of our partners in Latin America and the Caribbean to protect democracy, supporting institutional strengthening and civil society wherever necessary,” to confront, through cooperation, transnational organized crime and crime and to participate in the care of migrants, particularly in areas such as Darien. “The great common heritage that we share with Latin America and 600 million Spanish speakers” and, therefore, “we will continue to build, together with our Latin American partners, on the privilege of having a language of global reach,” he said. “In 2024 we signed ten memoranda for the promotion of Spanish in international organizations, agreements for its use in international arbitration processes, both in The Hague and in the Conference on Private International Law. We will continue in 2025 with the campaign for the recognition of Spanish as a working language in the International Court of Justice,” he announced. <h5><strong>Africa, Seville and languages </strong></h5> Regarding Africa, a region that “is destined to play a key geopolitical role with the reform of the global governance system,” Albares assured that the priority in 2025 is “to begin to put into practice the 100 actions” contained in the new Spain-Africa Strategy 2025-2028: the establishment of the Advisory Council, the creation of an Africa Foundation, the consolidation of circular migration programs and the development of transformation industries in Africa. Another milestone in 2025, according to Albares, will be “the holding in Seville of the United Nations Conference on Financing for Development, from June 30 to July 3,” in which Spain will defend “a profound reform of the international financial architecture, effectively addressing debt, tax systems and development cooperation.” In addition, Albares insisted that “the defence of multilingualism is another of our national identity traits.” “Twenty million Spanish citizens currently reside in regions with co-official languages” and, therefore, “public authorities have the obligation to represent and defend this diversity that enriches us so much, something that I have not tired of defending in Europe and that especially the ambassadors to the EU countries must continue to work on constantly, as you have done until now,” he added. <h5><strong><span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb">Ambassadors' Conferences</span></span></strong></h5> <span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb">The Ambassadors' Conferences began to be held in Spain, with a format similar to that used in other countries in our environment, in 2001 with the Government of José María Aznar and for a time they were held annually.</span></span> <span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb">In 2008, with José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero as head of the Executive, they stopped being held, among other reasons, due to the cost involved in transferring all the ambassadors to Spain at a time of economic crisis.</span></span> <span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb">The then Minister of Foreign Affairs, Arancha González Laya, called the 2021 Conference with the intention of resuming the annual periodicity, but due to the persistence of restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic, only a few were able to attend Madrid and the rest had to follow the meetings by videoconference.</span></span> <span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb">In 2022, the meeting was not called and in 2023, Albares brought it back.</span></span> <span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb">They are normally held at the beginning of the year, to take advantage of the fact that many ambassadors are already in Spain spending a few days on holiday for Christmas.</span></span> <h5><span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb"><strong>Margarita Robles</strong> </span></span></h5> <span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb">For her part, the Minister of Defence, Margarita Robles, reiterated to the ambassadors “Spain’s commitment to missions under the NATO flag” and assured that, although “the priority for the allies is Ukraine”, they should not “forget other areas of the planet where there is a very complicated situation”, such as the Sahel.</span></span> <span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb">In addition to reviewing NATO and EU missions with Spanish participation, the minister warned of “the importance of supporting the Defence industry of our country, because that means the creation of jobs, progress in research and development for better capabilities of our Armed Forces and as a true driving force for territorial dynamisation”.</span></span>
