Albares and the Colombian Foreign Minister discuss in Madrid the upcoming EU-CELAC Summit in Bogotá

Eduardo González The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, received the Colombian Foreign Minister, Laura Sarabia, in Madrid this Thursday. They discussed, among other matters, the EU-CELAC Summit in Bogotá, the upcoming establishment of the Spain-Colombia High-Level Commission (CAN), economic relations, and migration and consular cooperation. According to a press release from the Ministry, Albares and Sarabia discussed "the major current geopolitical challenges, such as the crises in Ukraine and Palestine," and addressed "the major upcoming events," including the Fourth Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) and the European Union, which will be held next November in Bogotá and is expected to be attended by 60 heads of state and government from the two regions. The two ministers also discussed the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development, which will take place in Seville from June 30 to July 3, and which is scheduled to host an extraordinary meeting of Ibero-American foreign ministers to hear the opinions and concerns of the Ibero-American community. Albares took advantage of the meeting to invite the Colombian foreign minister to participate in the meeting. The Spanish minister and his Colombian counterpart also discussed the 30th Ibero-American Summit, which will be held in Madrid in 2026. Separately, according to the Colombian Foreign Ministry, the meeting served to advance "the preparation of the Colombia-Spain Binational Commission, which will be held in October 2025." The Spain-Colombia High-Level Commission (CAN), provided for in the 1992 General Bilateral Treaty of Cooperation and Friendship, was already included in the Joint Declaration signed in September 2021 by the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, and the then President of Colombia, Iván Duque. In May 2023, Sánchez and the current Colombian president, Gustavo Petro (on his first official visit to Spain), signed the agreement in Madrid establishing the Commission, whose main mission is to develop Spanish-Colombian relations in all fields, especially in the political, economic and commercial, scientific and technological, educational and cultural, legal, and consular areas. This Thursday's meeting was the first between Albares and Sarabia since Gustavo Petro became President of Colombia. According to the Colombian Foreign Ministry, the meeting also addressed a series of "priority areas," such as development cooperation, economic and social opportunities (including market expansion and diversification, trade, investment, and tourism), education, culture, science and innovation, regional affairs, and cooperation on migration and consular matters. New Consulate in Madrid Separately, Laura Sarabia took advantage of her stay in Spain to officially inaugurate the new Consulate General of Colombia in Madrid. “Colombians living in Spain are one of the largest diasporas we have abroad, and it is for them and for them that we work every day,” the minister stated. The new Colombian Consulate in Madrid is located in a strategic location in the capital, at 8 Calle de los Madrazo, which will facilitate “consular access and assistance to citizens,” according to the Colombian Foreign Ministry in a press release. At the same event, which took place this past Wednesday, the State Secretary for Ibero-America, the Caribbean, and Spanish in the World, Susana Sumelzo, highlighted the contribution of the more than 320,000 Colombians residing in Spain, a number that rises to 480,000 if those with dual nationality are included. "It's a very large community that contributes daily with its work and its capacity to the development of our country, to the development of Spain, culturally, socially, and economically," she added. Last Tuesday, the Colombian Foreign Minister was received by the President of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Congress of Deputies, Juan Carlos Ruiz Boix, and by the members of the Committee, whom she invited to attend the CELAC-EU Summit, a meeting that "will serve to further strengthen bilateral relations."

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