The Diplomat
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, met this Monday in Paris with the Director-General of UNESCO, Audrey Azoulay, to sign the agreement that lays the groundwork for Barcelona to host the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s World Conference on Cultural Policies and Sustainable Development (MONDIACULT), from September 29 to October 1, 2025.
MONDIACULT is the leading international meeting on cultural policies and brings together the Ministers of Culture of UNESCO’s 194 Member States to define the global agenda, placing culture at the heart of the Global Development Agenda.
“By hosting MONDIACULT 2025, Spain reaffirms its commitment to multilateralism and its support for UNESCO and the values it represents,” Albares stated. According to the Ministry’s press release, Spain has proposed two specific areas of interest for the conference: culture for peace and the relationship between artificial intelligence and culture.
Albares also assured that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will play a prominent role in MONDIACULT 2025 by co-organizing two pre-conference sessions: one with the Organization of Ibero-American States (OEI) on culture for peace, and another with the Ministry of Finance and Social Development (SEGIB) on cultural financing.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has also scheduled four parallel events, one of which will be dedicated to the Lviv Culture, Peace, and Resilience cluster, which was inaugurated last January. The new AECID culture and development strategy will also be presented, reinforcing the Spanish Cooperation Agency’s commitment to promoting people’s cultural rights. Finally, there will be separate events to present the results of the two pre-conference sessions mentioned above.