<h6><strong>Eduardo González</strong></h6> <h4><strong>The Council of Ministers authorized the 2025-2028 Foreign Action Strategy on Tuesday. Its main pillars will be the defense of the European project and the EU's capacity to assume "greater responsibilities for its own security." It also includes a "rethinking of Spain's diplomatic and consular deployment."</strong></h4> "In a complex and changing international context," in which Spain has "the greatest international influence in its history," the new Strategy "answers the questions of what role we play, what role we want to play, what our interests are, and what values we identify with and defend," declared the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, during the press conference following the Council of Ministers. This Strategy, which is the roadmap for Spain's foreign policy for the next four years, has been developed in coordination with the other Ministries and with the participation of parliamentary groups, the private sector, civil society, and dozens of international relations experts. Once the text has been processed and submitted to Parliament for review and debate, José Manuel Albares will appear before the Foreign Affairs Committees of the Congress and Senate to explain the main lines and objectives of this Strategy. Following this, the Council of Ministers will give final approval to the document. The Strategy, as explained by the minister, is based on "three main pillars." The first, he continued, is Spain's "clear commitment" to the European project, because "a more prosperous and secure Spain requires a more prosperous, more cohesive, and more secure Europe." Therefore, with the new Strategy, the Spanish Government supports "a qualitative leap forward in both common European policies and their financing, with a more ambitious European budget and a reform of the decision-making process in Brussels that extends qualified majority voting to new areas." It also advocates continuing the EU enlargement process, Europe assuming "greater responsibilities for its own security in all areas," including energy, technology, and defense; a commitment to "the European Pillar of Social Rights," greater attention to the southern neighborhood, and an improvement in European competitiveness. "We are committed to deepening the single market, completing the Banking Union, strengthening the international role of the euro, and harnessing the full dynamism of the ecological transition and the digital transformation," he explained. “In short, we must integrate the perspective of economic security into European construction, reducing vulnerabilities and critical dependencies, anticipating threats, including economic coercion, and expanding our network of trading partners,” he added. The second pillar of the Strategy, he explained, is the defense of “a Spain committed to values such as peace, multilateralism, democracy, an international order based on human rights and peace,” for which it is necessary to “reform and strengthen multilateralism, making it more inclusive, more democratic, and more representative.” Finally, the third pillar is the commitment to “a Spain that contributes to global peace and security.” “Spain and Europe must assume greater responsibilities for their own security, and to do so, we must strengthen the architecture of arms control, non-proliferation, and disarmament, and maintain a firm commitment to the fight against terrorism,” he declared. “In short, world peace and international law, and its defense, run through this strategy,” he added. “We also support international tribunals, anything that involves fighting impunity in terrible situations like we see today in Ukraine or Gaza,” he added. <h5><strong>Instruments of Foreign Action</strong></h5> This third pillar, according to Albares, also includes “the security of citizens abroad.” “There are already three million Spaniards residing abroad,” and therefore, the Strategy includes a “major plan to renew the consular network.” In this sense, one of the Strategy’s objectives, he explained, is “to rethink the instruments of our foreign action.” “Therefore, following the Strategy, we are going to reconsider Spain’s diplomatic and consular deployment, where we are, where we should be, and how to adapt it,” he continued. "This is something we've been doing for three years. We've equipped ourselves with a new headquarters (for the Ministry) fit for the 21st century. We're opening new consulates in the United Kingdom, China, and Cuba. We're renovating consulates like the one in London and foreign ministries like the one in Rome. There's a consular digitalization plan worth 115 million euros, and we're planning significant salary increases for staff working abroad," Albares explained. "We're going to use all the tools at our disposal, in addition to the Spanish Foreign Service, everything related to public diplomacy, the Casa networks, the Council Foundations, the Carolina Foundation, FIAP, the Cervantes Institute, scientific and technological diplomacy, and economic and commercial diplomacy," he concluded.
