José Manuel Albares Bueno
Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation of Spain
Today and tomorrow we are celebrating the Ibero-American Summit in Cuenca, Ecuador. Under the motto “Innovation, Inclusion and Sustainability in Ibero-America”, all the countries of the Community are meeting to share responses and proposals to the challenges and opportunities that we share. Among them, the importance of fighting against the effects of climate change, natural disasters – as we have recently seen with the effects of the DANA in Spain – and the need to establish emergency management policies.
In these two days we are meeting as a Community. We are because there is an Ibero-American way of being and of being in the world that we share and that identifies us with the rest of the planet. We are a Community because we share particularly intense economic and political ties, but above all we collect the deep substratum of family, human and cultural ties of the thousands of compatriots who over time have lived in several of our countries. We are a Community because we share values and work together to promote multilateralism, cooperation and solidarity. Spain has felt very close to this community in every show of support for the victims and those affected by the floods we have just suffered, among whom there are also citizens of other Latin American countries.
In Cuenca we have seen our progress and we are taking important steps in environmental issues, in matters of food security, in digital rights, in the mobility of people, in scientific knowledge and in social and cultural cohesion. A shared heritage of values, principles and consensus based on the defence of peace, democracy, human rights and sustainable development.
The Cuenca Summit will give continuity to a heritage that we have been building for more than three decades, and whose witness will be taken by Spain in 2026. A heritage that, far from being something abstract and intangible, implies concrete results that reach the lives of our citizens. It was in this framework that we approved the Ibero-American Social Security Agreement, which allows the coordination of our national pension legislation, as well as the Framework Agreement for the Promotion of Talent Circulation in the Ibero-American Space. These achievements are joined by the Campus Iberoamérica program, which allows the mobility of student researchers and workers from the countries that make up the region. This year, the Cuenca Summit addresses innovation, inclusion and sustainability as priority areas for a region in transformation, together with other key issues such as youth employability, security and migration.
This shared heritage distinguishes our Community from other organizations. Over time we have been able to treasure the capital that, in these times of uncertainty, is most valuable and the safest: trust, security in ties that are far above any situation.
During the Cuenca Summit we also formalized the transfer of the Pro Tempore Presidency from Ecuador to Spain. We will host the next Ibero-American Summit in 2026. We will exercise this Pro Tempore Secretariat with the help of the Ibero-American General Secretariat, which allows for in-depth and timely monitoring of the agreements reached and constitutes the only official space for convergence, work and monitoring of the agreements in the region. We are fully aware of the importance of this trust on the part of the other Ibero-American countries. For Spain it is an honor to have received the unanimous support of all the countries of our community as the venue for the next Ibero-American summit in 2026.
We have been working from the very beginning to ensure that the 2026 event will be a Summit of reaffirmation and consolidation of the Ibero-American Community, with tangible improvements for our societies and our citizens, because the Ibero-American community not only brings institutions and States closer together, it unites peoples and individuals. Furthermore, we are working to promote the international role of the Ibero-American region. A role that our region is called to play due to its demographic and economic weight: we are close to 10% of the world’s population, 7% of the world’s GDP and almost 15% of the earth’s surface. But also due to its human and cultural heritage. The Ibero-American languages - Spanish and Portuguese – have more than 700 million speakers spread across four continents. All of this drives us to act as an actor with specific weight in the international community, raising its voice in favour of peace, multilateralism and human rights.
Spain will work to position the Ibero-American Community globally, strengthening its bi-regional strategic association with the European Union, achieving greater presence in multilateral forums and opening our association to other regions, such as our Caribbean brothers. We are also moving forward to strengthen the system by strengthening the mechanisms of operation and coordination. As Spain’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, I will work to build bridges and bring all members of our community together around our shared values and for the benefit of our peoples. No future can be built on confrontation and separation, but on unity and cooperation. In these times, the ties and values of affection, trust and shared lives that unite our peoples and countries are more important than ever. The values of peace and dialogue on which we have built our community are the only stable guide for any future and we cannot give up any of that without giving up who we are. For all these reasons, I firmly believe that this Community that we share is our strength and our fortune. Something that, without a doubt, is worth caring for and strengthening and to that we will dedicate all our commitment and effort.
