The Diplomat
Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares began a tour of Latin America and the Caribbean this Sunday, which will include Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, and Mexico.
The objective of the trip, according to a press release from the Ministry, is to “strengthen relations in the year of the next Ibero-American Summit in Madrid” and to address the main issues on the bilateral and regional agenda with political authorities, business leaders, and academic and cultural institutions in these countries.
Puerto Rico will be the first stop, where, in addition to various institutional meetings, he will participate in an investment forum with business leaders, as well as the Inter-American University Conference on the Spanish Language, where he will have the opportunity to highlight the deep historical and cultural ties that exist with the American continent.
From San Juan, he will travel on Tuesday, April 28, to Santo Domingo, where he plans to visit a cooperation project promoted by the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) focused on strengthening the Comprehensive System for the Care and Protection of Victims of Gender Violence. He will also participate in a business forum and meet with his counterpart, Roberto Álvarez, with whom he will have the opportunity to review the preparatory work for the upcoming Ibero-American Summit to be held in Madrid.
The final leg of the trip will take place on Wednesday, April 29, in Mexico, where the Foreign Minister, on his third visit to the country, will meet with the Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Roberto Velasco, with whom he will sign the Act of the Spain-Mexico Binational Commission, “a reflection of the excellent state of the fraternal relations existing between both countries.”
He will also lay a wreath at the tomb of Mexican President Lázaro Cárdenas, who welcomed thousands of Spanish exiles to Mexico after the Civil War, inaugurate the exhibition “The Middle of the World,” which he also visited during its run in Madrid, and participate in various events held at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, the Spanish Chamber of Commerce in Mexico, and the National Museum of Anthropology. Finally, he will visit the Consulate in Mexico to review the work being done to implement the Law of Democratic Memory.
“Through this tour, Albares will have the opportunity to convey the importance that Latin America and the Caribbean hold for Spain, a sister region with a shared language and deep historical, political, economic, and cultural ties,” the press release continued. “There, he will be able to strengthen the preparatory work to ensure the success of the upcoming Ibero-American Summit in Madrid, reaffirming and updating the Ibero-American Community of Nations,” it concluded.