The Diplomat
The Council of Ministers yesterday appointed Rafael Soriano Ortiz to the post of Spanish ambassador to Côte d’Ivoire, as The Diplomat had anticipated.
Rafael Soriano, whose name was among the 27 ambassadors whose request for a visa was authorized by the Government at the beginning of June (which allowed unblocking a replacement of ambassadors that had been paralyzed since November of last year), was born in Barcelona in 1965, holds a degree in Law from the University of Barcelona and has been a civil servant in the Diplomatic Career since 1991.
Soriano was stationed at the second head of the Spanish Embassies in Sofia, Copenhagen and Dublin and served as cultural counselor and in charge of consular affairs at the Spanish Embassy in Tunisia. He was also consul general of Spain in Córdoba (Argentina).
In the central services he was head of service and area of the Office of Planning and Evaluation of the Secretariat of State for International Cooperation. He also held the post of deputy director general for Cooperation with South American Countries and director of the Indigenous Program at the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) and was an advisory member of the Cabinet of the Secretary of State for International Cooperation, for Latin America and the Caribbean.
Since February 2019, he has held the position of director of International Relations at the Instituto Cervantes. Soriano has been decorated as a knight of the Order of Civil Merit and as an officer of the Order of Isabella the Catholic.
