The King receives the Letters of Credence from the Apostolic Nuncio and the Ambassadors of Norway, Luxembourg, Lithuania, Brazil, and Ireland

Eduardo González King Felipe VI received the Letters of Credence from the newly accredited ambassadors of the Holy See, Norway, Luxembourg, Lithuania, Brazil, and Ireland at the Royal Palace in Madrid on Thursday, December 18. According to the Royal Household, the King received the Letters of Credence from Archbishop Piero Pioppo, Apostolic Nuncio of the Holy See; Lars Andersen, Ambassador of Norway; Elisabeth Cardoso Jordão, Ambassador of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg; Tomas Irnius, Ambassador of Lithuania; Luiz Alberto Figueiredo Machado, Ambassador of Brazil; and Brian Joseph Glynn, Ambassador of Ireland. Letters of Credence are the document that accredits a foreign ambassador as the representative and highest diplomatic authority of another country in Spain. The presentation ceremony before the Head of State dates back to the 18th century and has remained virtually unchanged to this day. Ambassadors arrive at the Royal Palace in period carriages, accompanied by the Royal Guard's honor guard, and present their credentials to King Felipe in the Audience Hall. The new Apostolic Nuncio of the Holy See, Piero Pioppo, was born in Savona in 1960, ordained a priest in 1985, and is the Archbishop of Torcello. He succeeds the Filipino Bernardito Auza, whose appointment was postponed due to the death of Pope Francis (on April 21) and the subsequent conclave in which the current Pontiff, the American Robert Francis Prevost (Leo XIV), was elected—a process that brought the Holy See's major decisions to a standstill. [caption id="attachment_133128" align="alignnone" width="750"] The King speaks with the apostolic nuncio[/caption] Archbishop Piero Pioppo holds a doctorate in Dogmatic Theology and speaks four languages (Italian, English, French, and Spanish). He was a close collaborator of Cardinal Angelo Sodano, Secretary of State of the Holy See from 1991 to 2006. In 1993, he entered the Diplomatic Service of the Holy See, where he served in the Apostolic Nunciatures of Korea and Chile, and in the Section for General Affairs of the Secretariat of State. In July 2006, he was appointed Prelate of the IOR (Institute for the Works of Religion), the Vatican Bank. In 2010, he was ordained a bishop and began serving as Apostolic Nuncio to Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea. From 2017 until his appointment to Spain, he served as Apostolic Nuncio to Indonesia and to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Doctrinally, Pioppo is considered a conservative. Lars Andersen has been the new ambassador to Norway since last August. Born in 1966, he joined the Norwegian diplomatic corps in 1998. He has extensive experience at the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where he has served as Deputy Director-General of the Department of European Affairs and Trade Policy, and represented Norway as chief negotiator for European Economic Area (EEA) funds. [caption id="attachment_133130" align="alignnone" width="750"] King Felipe VI with the Norwegian ambassador[/caption] Andersen has been ambassador to South Sudan and has held other diplomatic posts at the Norwegian embassies in Copenhagen and Athens, as well as at the Permanent Mission of Norway to the United Nations in Geneva. He was Minister-Counselor at the Norwegian Embassy in Spain from 2013 to 2017. He speaks Norwegian, English, French, and Spanish. Luxembourg's new ambassador, Elisabeth Cardoso Jordao, was head of the Multilateral Service (development cooperation) at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 2011 to 2026, deputy ambassador at the Embassy in France from December 2006 to September 2011, policy analyst at the OECD from 2011 to 2012, counselor at the Permanent Representation of Luxembourg to the EU from October 2012 to July 2014, and deputy director of Defense at the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs from August 2014 to August 2017. [caption id="attachment_133132" align="alignnone" width="750"] The ambassador of Luxembourg presents her Letters of Credence to the King[/caption] Elisabeth Cardoso Jordao served as ambassador to the United Arab Emirates from September 2017 to August 2021 and as ambassador to Greece, Cyprus, and Romania (residential in Athens) from August 2021 to August 2025. She has been ambassador to Spain and Andorra since August 2025. 2025. Tomas Irnius, the new Lithuanian ambassador, has had ties to Spain for many years. A student at the Diplomatic School of Madrid (International Relations and Diplomacy Studies) in 1996, he served as First Secretary at his country's Embassy in Madrid between 2004 and 2007, as Head of Mission at the Lithuanian Consulate in Valencia between 2012 and 2016, and was awarded the Order of Civil Merit of the Kingdom of Spain in 2005. [caption id="attachment_133134" align="alignnone" width="750"] King Felipe VI holds his first meeting with the Lithuanian ambassador[/caption] In addition, he has held several positions in his country's Ministry of Foreign Affairs: Head of the Development Cooperation Policy Division in the Department of Development Cooperation and Democracy Promotion, Head of the Political Strategy Division in the Department of Policy Planning, Head of the Baltic Sea States Division in the Department of European Countries, and Deputy Counselor in the Directorate of European Bilateral and Regional Cooperation. He has served as Lithuanian ambassador to Spain since August of this year. Brazil's new ambassador, Luiz Alberto Figueiredo Machado, born in Rio de Janeiro and who turned seventy on July 17, served as his country's Permanent Representative to the United Nations (2013) and as Minister of Foreign Affairs between August 2013 and December 2014, during Dilma Rousseff's presidency. During his year in Rousseff's government, Figueiredo Machado was at the center of a bitter diplomatic clash with the Israeli government after issuing a statement in July 2014 calling the "escalation of violence" in the Gaza Strip "unacceptable" and recalling Brazil's ambassador to Israel for consultations. In its response, Israel called Brazil a "diplomatic dwarf." [caption id="attachment_133136" align="alignnone" width="750"] The Monarch receives the Letters of Credence from the ambassador of Brazil[/caption] After leaving the Ministry, Figueiredo Machado served as Brazil's ambassador to the United States (2015-2016), Portugal (2016-2019), and Qatar (2019-2023). Until now, he served as Ambassador Extraordinary for Climate Change. Luiz Alberto Figueiredo Machado will replace Orlando Leite Ribeiro as head of the Embassy, a position he had held since April 2022. Brian Joseph Glynn, the new Irish Ambassador to Spain, was until now part of the European External Action Service (EEAS), where he was appointed Director-General for the Americas in January 2021 by the then EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell. Previously, Brian Glynn was Irish Ambassador to Brazil (2014-2018) and, between 2018 and 2020, he was Director for the United States and Canada and Director for the Americas at the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. [caption id="attachment_133138" align="alignnone" width="750"] The Irish ambassador speaks with King Felipe VI[/caption] He was also the Irish Government's Special Envoy to successfully secure a non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council. He also served at the Irish Embassy in Madrid and at the Permanent Representation of Ireland to the EU.

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