Eduardo González
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, and the Icelandic Minister of Foreign Affairs and Defense, Þorgerður Katrín Gunnarsdóttir, presided this Monday, December 1st, over the opening of Iceland’s first Embassy in Madrid after 76 years of diplomatic relations.
“I believe that the inauguration of the Icelandic Embassy here in Madrid and, of course, the plan to open an Embassy very soon in Reykjavík, where we already have a permanent diplomatic mission, demonstrates that when it comes to defending values, interests, and our own security, geographical distance is not what matters; what matters is sharing the same vision and defending the same values,” Albares declared during the ceremony, held at the Ministry headquarters in the Palacio de Santa Cruz.
The ceremony took place nearly three months after the new ambassador, Kristján Andri Stefánsson, presented the Copies of Credentials at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and his Letters of Credence to King Felipe VI at the Royal Palace in Madrid. The two countries formally established diplomatic relations in November 1949, but until now, there had been no ambassador from the Nordic country in Madrid. Therefore, Stefánsson is Iceland’s first ambassador to Spain.
“We stand together in defending the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine,” Albares continued. “We also firmly believe in upholding human rights and international humanitarian law everywhere, whether in Ukraine or Gaza, and bilaterally in our bilateral relations,” he stated. “We have enjoyed excellent bilateral relations for 75 years. We are also NATO allies and partners in the European Economic Area,” he added.
According to Albares, “our citizens will benefit enormously from the opening of this Embassy.” “More and more Spaniards are traveling to Iceland for tourism, and more and more Icelanders are traveling to Spain and settling here. All of this will benefit: our friendship, the strengthening of our values, the defense of our Euro-Atlantic security, and, clearly, all the trade and relations between our citizens,” he added.
The Embassy’s opening ceremony included an initial ministerial panel in which Albares and Gunnarsdóttir discussed European security, feminist foreign policy, and the Middle East. Following the first panel, there were two further thematic panels: the first on security, defense, and cooperation in the Arctic, and the second on human rights.
Attendees included several European and Latin American ambassadors, representatives from various ministries, companies, think tanks, and the Spanish Polar Committee. Also in attendance were members of the business delegation accompanying the Icelandic minister on this trip, as well as her honorary consuls in Spain. Following the ceremony in Santa Cruz, the Secretary of State for the European Union, Fernando Sampedro, accompanied the minister and the Icelandic ambassador to Spain to the new headquarters of the Icelandic Foreign Ministry for its formal inauguration.
Before the embassy’s opening, Albares held a bilateral meeting with Gunnarsdóttir at the Palacio de Viana, where they discussed European security and feminist diplomacy, “in which both countries are leaders,” according to a press release from the Ministry.
The Embassy and bilateral relations
Iceland’s representation in Spain was previously handled through its embassy in Paris. In fact, Kristján Andri Stefánsson himself was formerly the non-resident ambassador to Spain, based at the embassy in France. Spain’s representation in Iceland is handled by the ambassador to Norway, Alejandra del Río, although since June 2019, Spain has maintained a diplomatic outpost in Reykjavík. Despite the opening of the new Icelandic embassy in Madrid, the Spanish government currently has no intention of upgrading the existing diplomatic outpost to an embassy, according to sources close to the matter who spoke to The Diplomat.
Until now, Iceland was the only NATO member without an embassy in Spain. In a memorandum, the Icelandic Ministry of Foreign Affairs had emphasized in 2024 the need for a resident embassy in Spain, “the fourth most populous country in the European Union and a heavyweight in all the work of the European Union,” as well as a “key NATO member” that “has a strategic role to play due to its location in the Mediterranean and Africa” and its “historical relationship” with Latin America.
On June 24, 2024, the Icelandic Parliament approved the opening of the Icelandic Embassy in Madrid in 2025. The proposal took into account the high number of Icelanders who have permanent residence in Spain for both long and short periods and the strong flow of tourists throughout the year.
It is estimated that some 3,500 Icelanders have permanent residence in Spain and that nearly 100,000 Icelandic tourists visit our country each year (25% of the Icelandic population). A significant group is made up of middle-aged people, who often extend their stay in Spain into the winter. Currently, eight cities in Spain have direct flights to Iceland, making it the European country with the most air connections to Iceland.
Another factor taken into account, according to the Icelandic government, is trade between the two countries. Exports of goods from Iceland to Spain have increased steadily over the last decade, particularly aluminum, fish, and mollusks and crustaceans from Iceland. According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Spain’s trade balance with Iceland is in deficit, but the difference narrowed between 2022 and 2023 due to the increase in Spanish exports to Iceland. Trade relations between Iceland and Spain are framed within the European Economic Area (EEA) Agreement, which applies to the 27 EU countries and three member states of the European Free Trade Association: Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway.
Albares and Þorgerður Katrín Gunnarsdóttir held their first meeting in Madrid on March 25, where they discussed the upcoming opening of an Icelandic embassy in Madrid. The minister also met in July 2024, during the NATO summit in Washington, with his then Icelandic counterpart, Thordis Kolbrun, with whom he also discussed the opening of the Icelandic embassy in Madrid.
