<h6><strong>Eduardo González</strong></h6> <h4><strong>King Felipe VI received the Letters of Credence from the newly accredited ambassadors of Argentina, Angola, Senegal, Guatemala, Switzerland, and Iceland this Friday, September 12, at the Royal Palace in Madrid.</strong></h4> According to the Royal Household, the King received the Letters of Credence from <strong>Wenceslao Bunge Saravia</strong>, ambassador of Argentina; <strong>Balbina Malheiros Dias da Silva</strong>, ambassador of Angola; <strong>Ibrahim Al Khalil Seck</strong>, ambassador of Senegal; <strong>Jorge Skinner-Klée Arenales</strong>, ambassador of Guatemala; <strong>Heinrich Schellenberg</strong>, ambassador of Switzerland; and <strong>Kristján Andri Stefánsson</strong>, ambassador of Iceland. Letters of Credence are the document that accredits a foreign ambassador as the representative and highest diplomatic authority of another country in Spain. The ceremony of awarding them to the head of state dates back to the 18th century and has remained virtually unchanged to this day. The ambassadors arrive at the Royal Palace in period carriages accompanied by the honor guard of the Royal Guard and present their credentials to Don Felipe in the Audience Hall. <strong>Wenceslao Bunge Saravia</strong> is the new Argentine ambassador to Spain, a position that had been vacant since last November, following the dismissal of the previous ambassador, Roberto Bosch. Wenceslao Bunge Saravia resided in Spain for almost thirty years and, until July 2021, served as CEO of Credit Suisse Spain. In March 2023, he received Spanish nationality by letter of naturalization from the Council of Ministers, but was forced to renounce it to take up the post of ambassador. The new ambassador will have the complicated mission of improving relations between Argentina and Spain, which have been seriously damaged by the disagreements between President Javier Milei and Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez. <img class="alignnone wp-image-125268 size-jnews-featured-750" src="https://thediplomatinspain.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/CR-Argentina-750x500.jpg" alt="" width="750" height="500" /> <strong>Balbina Malheiros Dias da Silva</strong> is the new ambassador to Angola. Born on February 27, 1959, in Luanda, she joined her country's diplomatic service in 1983, after which she served as diplomatic attaché in the Latin America and Caribbean Directorate of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. She subsequently served as head of the North Africa and Middle East Department, head of the Central and Eastern Europe Division, minister for Southern Africa, and director of the main department for the Americas. Malheiros Dias da Silva served as ambassador to Zambia from 2012 to 2019 and, on October 24, 2019, became the first woman to serve as Angola's ambassador to Germany. <img class="alignnone wp-image-125270 size-jnews-featured-750" src="https://thediplomatinspain.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/CR-Angola-750x500.jpg" alt="" width="750" height="500" /> Senegal's new representative to Spain is <strong>Ibrahim Al Khalil Seck</strong>, who served as ambassador to Morocco from 2018 to 2021 and to Kuwait from 2021 to the present. He was appointed last December to replace Mariame Sy in Spain, who had held the position since November 2018 and has been assigned to other roles. <img class="alignnone wp-image-125272 size-jnews-featured-750" src="https://thediplomatinspain.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/CR-Senegal-750x501.jpg" alt="" width="750" height="501" /> The current Permanent Representative of Guatemala to the United Nations in Vienna, <strong>Jorge Skinner-Klée Arenales</strong>, is his country's new ambassador to Spain, a position that had been vacant since May 2023, when Mónica Bolaños left the post to be appointed ambassador to Ecuador. Born in 1957 in Guatemala City, Jorge Skinner-Klée Arenales has served as Ambassador to the Netherlands and Permanent Representative to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (2019-2023), Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York (2016-2019), Ambassador to Belgium and Luxembourg and Head of Mission to the European Union (2012-2016), Permanent Representative to the Organization of American States (2008-2012), Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York (2004-2008), Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs (2004), Ambassador to Honduras (2003-2004), Ambassador to Belize (2000-2003), Ambassador to Canada (1998-2000) and Ambassador to Germany (1993-1998). <img class="alignnone wp-image-125274 size-jnews-featured-750" src="https://thediplomatinspain.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/CR-Guatemala-750x500.jpg" alt="" width="750" height="500" /> The new Swiss ambassador, <strong>Heinrich Schellenberg</strong>, was born in 1964 in Zurich to a Spanish mother, which allows him to speak Spanish fluently. Schellenberg joined the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs in 1991. From 2007 to 2010, he served as deputy ambassador at the Swiss Embassy in Mexico, from 2010 to 2014, as Consul General in Shanghai, from 2014 to 2018, as ambassador to Saudi Arabia, and from 2018 to 2022, as head of the Swiss Embassy in Argentina. From that year until now, he served as director of the Asia-Pacific division of the Swiss Ministry of Foreign Affairs. <img class="alignnone wp-image-125276 size-jnews-featured-750" src="https://thediplomatinspain.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/CR-Suiza-750x500.jpg" alt="" width="750" height="500" /> Finally, <strong>Kristján Andri Stefánsson</strong> is Iceland's first ambassador to Spain in more than 75 years of diplomatic relations. Born on June 23, 1967, in Reykjavík, he previously served as ambassador to the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and San Marino, and as Head of Mission of Iceland to the EU. His professional resume includes, among others, positions as Legal Advisor to the Prime Minister (1995-2004), Director of Economic Affairs and Foreign Trade and Legal Advisor to the Minister of Foreign Affairs (2004-2005), Ambassador to Belgium (2005), Permanent Representative to the Council of Europe (2016-2018), Ambassador to France, Andorra, Algeria, Italy, Lebanon, Monaco, Morocco, Portugal, Spain, and Tunisia, and Permanent Representative to the OECD and UNESCO (2016-2020). Spain and Iceland formally established diplomatic relations in November 1949, but until then, there had not been an ambassador from the Nordic country in Madrid. Iceland's representation in Spain was carried out from the Embassy in Paris. In fact, Kristján Andri Stefánsson previously served as a non-resident ambassador to Spain from the Embassy in France. <img class="alignnone wp-image-125278 size-jnews-featured-750" src="https://thediplomatinspain.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/CR-Islandia-750x501.jpg" alt="" width="750" height="501" />
