Albares presents the first Public Diplomacy Strategy to “project the real Spain” against “disinformation”

The Diplomat Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares closed the presentation of Spain’s first Public Diplomacy Strategy on Thursday. The strategy, planned for the period 2026-2028, coordinates the country’s international outreach efforts by public institutions, the private sector, academia, culture, sports, and civil society. “Diplomacy cannot be limited to relations between governments; it must be directed at people,” the minister stated during the event, held at the Ministry headquarters in Plaza del Marqués de Salamanca (Madrid). More than one hundred people attended, including ambassadors and other diplomatic representatives, representatives of international organizations in Madrid, academics, representatives of think tanks, and senior officials from the Ministry and the Prime Minister’s Office. “That is public diplomacy: dialogue with the societies of other countries to explain who we are, what we stand for, and what we offer,” he continued. “We, in this Ministry, have been practicing public diplomacy for years,” and therefore, “with this strategy, what we are doing is achieving a common and organized vision of all that collective effort, identifying our strengths, defining our priorities and our audiences, and projecting a coherent image of Spain,” he asserted. According to Albares, “this strategy doesn't invent anything new; it organizes, coordinates, and strengthens it, and having this strategy is more necessary than ever because the context demands it.” “Unfortunately, we are witnessing the rise of narratives that question the foundations of the international order and its rules,” he warned. “Disinformation has also become an instrument of power, and hate speech is being used more and more,” he denounced. “A country that doesn’t tell its own story risks having others tell it for it,” and therefore, what this strategy seeks is “to project the real Spain: a solid, pluralistic, diverse democracy, committed to human rights and to its domestic affairs. A country that doesn’t impose, but rather engages in dialogue. A country that believes that cooperation is always stronger than confrontation, as we demonstrated yesterday by resolving concrete problems for our citizens, demolishing the last wall in continental Europe, and reconnecting Gibraltar with the Campo de Gibraltar after three centuries,” he emphasized. Four pillars According to Albares, “the strategy articulates its action around four pillars, with specific objectives and actions.” The first pillar, he explained, is “positioning.” “We want to renew Spain’s international projection so that it reflects what we truly are today: one of the fastest-growing advanced economies, a country about to reach 50 million inhabitants that has turned openness into a strength, a European leader in the ecological transition,” he continued. “We want to continue promoting what Spain finally has at this moment: its own voice and identity, as a middle power, but with a global vocation, present in all the major debates of our time, be it climate, multilateralism, migration, or digital governance,” he added. The second pillar, he continued, “is impact.” “Public diplomacy is a tool at the service of concrete results, and this strategy seeks to attract foreign investment in strategic sectors: technology, clean energy, and biotechnology,” he asserted. “It also seeks to attract international scientific and research talent at a time when Europe, and of course Spain, at the forefront, is a haven for academic freedom and freedom of thought,” he added. The third pillar, he continued, is “operationality.” “The tools exist, but they are scattered among different ministries and institutions, and this strategy articulates them under a unified narrative and establishes a strengthened governance structure with an inter-ministerial working group that will involve all departments with relevant responsibilities,” he announced. Finally, the fourth pillar is “communication.” “The strategy identifies our target audience: multilateral institutions and policymakers, opinion leaders, the media, think tanks, investors and talent, young people and students, Spaniards abroad, who are just as much Spanish citizens as those of us living in Spain, and Spanish-speaking communities, our best network of natural ambassadors,” he explained.

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