<h6><strong>Eduardo González</strong></h6> <h4><strong>The Council of Ministers appointed this Tuesday the new Spanish ambassadors to Indonesia, Bernardo de Sicart; to Namibia, Francisco Javier Pagalday; and to New Zealand, Luis Alfonso Sánchez-Vellisco.</strong></h4> <strong>Bernardo de Sicart</strong>, a member of the Diplomatic Service since 1985, will replace Francisco de Asís Aguilera at the Spanish Embassy in Jakarta. To date, he has served in the diplomatic representations in Mexico, Algeria, and Equatorial Guinea. He has also served as Consul General in Lima and Marseille, as the Permanent Representation to the European Union, as COREPER Coordinator, where he was responsible for various tasks in the RELEX area, and as Ambassador to Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and Luxembourg. He also served as Advisor to the Minister of the Interior and to the First and Second Vice Presidents of the Government (2000-2004). In Central Services, he served as an advisory member in the SEUE and SECIPI Cabinets, as Director of State Protocol, and later as Director of International Relations in the Presidency of the Government. He was also stationed in Barcelona as Deputy Director of International Relations for the Barcelona '92 Olympic Games Organizing Committee. The new ambassador to Namibia is <strong>Francisco Javier Pagalday</strong>, who will replace Alberto de la Calle. A member of the Diplomatic Service since 1990, he has served abroad in the representations of Ghana, Luxembourg, Costa Rica, Ireland, the Consulate General of Spain in Miami, and finally as the Spanish ambassador to Panama (2019-2022). At the Ministry, he has held responsibilities in the Directorate General for Economic Relations (delegate to the Paris Club), in the contracting area of the Subdirectorate General for Assets attached to the Directorate General for Foreign Service, as an advisory member of the Undersecretariat for two terms (2009-2011 and 2022-2023), and as Deputy Director General for Consular Protection and Assistance in the Directorate General for Spaniards Abroad and Consular Affairs (2015-2019). From July 2023 to the present, he has served as Vice President of the Spanish Section of the Spanish-North American Permanent Committee. Finally, <strong>Luis Alfonso Sánchez-Vellisco</strong> will replace Miguel Bauzá (retired on June 1) as Spanish Ambassador to New Zealand. A career diplomatic official since 2007, he has held various positions in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, both abroad and in central services. Abroad, he has held deputy leadership positions at the Spanish embassies in Bamako (Mali), Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), Accra (Ghana) (on secondment) and Canberra (Australia). In the Ministry's central services, he has held positions as advisory member in the Office of the Secretary of State for International Cooperation, as deputy assistant director for the Maghreb, and as head of studies at the Diplomatic School. Since August 2022, he has held the position of advisory member in the Office of the Minister.
