<h6><strong>Eduardo González</strong></h6> <h4><strong>The Sultan of Oman, Haitham bin Tariq Al Said, will become this week the first international leader to make a state visit to Spain since May 2023.</strong></h4> The Omani monarch, who will visit Spain from May 20 to 22 as part of a tour of Europe, will be received this Wednesday by the King and Queen at the Royal Palace in Madrid. Afterwards, King Felipe will meet with the Sultan of Oman at La Zarzuela Palace and, in the evening, will be honored with a gala dinner at the Royal Palace in Madrid. The following day, the Sultan of Oman will be received by the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez. According to the Royal Household, the state visit by Bin Tariq Al Said "will serve to highlight and strengthen the ties and bilateral relations between the two countries." The Omani monarch will stay at El Pardo Palace, the building customarily used to host heads of state on their visits to Spain. As is customary in most Gulf monarchies, the Sultan is traveling without his wife. This is the first state visit by a foreign leader to Spain since May 3, 2023, when the visit of Colombian President Gustavo Petro took place. No other international leader has traveled to our country since then under the state visit protocol. Haitham bin Tarik al-Said ascended the throne of Oman in 2020, following the death of his predecessor, Qaboos bin Said, who ruled Oman for almost 50 years and visited Spain on several occasions, mostly in private. Qaboos received King Felipe in 1985, when, while still Prince of Asturias, he traveled to Oman to represent Spain on the fifteenth anniversary of the Sultan's rise to power. Subsequently, as King Felipe VI, he traveled to Oman on January 13 and 14, 2020, to attend the funeral of Sultan Qabus bin Said. The King held a telephone conversation with Sultan Haitham bin Tarik on October 8, 2023. Separately, on March 19, 2024, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, received his counterpart from the Sultanate of Oman, Sayyid Badr Al Busaidi, in Madrid. Albares expressed his gratitude for Spain's firm position regarding the Palestinian cause. Spain and the Sultanate of Oman established diplomatic relations in 1972. The Spanish Embassy in Muscat was opened in 2004, and in 2006, Oman appointed its first ambassador to Spain. On April 30, Felipe VI received the Letters of Credence from the new ambassador of Oman, Thamir Faiz Khalfan Al Alawi, at the Royal Palace in Madrid. His predecessor, Omar al Kathiri, left the Embassy in Madrid last November to take over as head of his country's Mission to the United Nations in New York.
