The Diplomat
The Spain-India Council Foundation held last week, in telematic format, the annual meeting of its Board of Trustees, during which the State Secretary for Foreign and Global Affairs, Ángeles Moreno, announced that the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, and the head of the Ministry, José Manuel Albares, have among their plans to travel to the Asian country.
During the meeting of the Board of Trustees, which took place on December 20 at Acciona’s headquarters, the company’s Vice-Chairman and Chairman of the Board Foundation, Juan Ignacio Entrecanales, and the Foundation’s Secretary General, José Leandro Consarnau, outlined the Foundation’s major challenges for its 2022 action plan.
Among the main initiatives for 2022 is the International Congress The School of the Poet Rabindranath Tagore: Art, Science, Nature and Educational Innovation, organized by the University of Valladolid and Casa de la India in collaboration with the Embassy of India and the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) and which will take place next February.
As for the year that is ending, the most outstanding event for the Foundation was the official presentation of the Spain-India Report, which took place last February in the presence of the then Minister of Foreign Affairs, Arancha González Laya, Juan Ignacio Entrecanales, and the Ambassador of India in Spain, Sanjay Verma (who will soon be replaced by Dinesh K. Patnaik). This document, according to the Fundación Consejo, “has meant a new way of approaching the relationship between the two countries and serves as a starting point for new actions”. The main action, it continued, “is the future creation of the Spain-India Observatory,” the Council Foundation’s “most ambitious project to date, which will create a broad and cohesive community of experts on both countries.”
The meeting of the Board of Trustees was attended by Ángeles Moreno, who accepted her appointment as new trustee of the Foundation and announced that the Ministry’s plans include upcoming visits to India by José Manuel Albares and Pedro Sánchez, although she did not provide further details. She also defined the lines that will mark the Government’s foreign action with respect to the country.
In addition, the State Secretary for Trade, Xiana Méndez, pointed out that in 2021 the negotiations to reach an EU-India trade agreement were relaunched and affirmed that the Spanish presidency of the EU Council in the second half of 2023 could be a great opportunity to introduce a Spanish imprint in this process. He also assured that the Government is working on an interesting Spain-India agenda to further deepen relations between the two countries.
The meeting of the Board of Trustees was also attended by Javier Salido, Director General for North America, Eastern Europe and Asia-Pacific, and Ana Esmeralda Martínez, Director General for Economic Diplomacy. Equally, several trustees took part, such as representatives from Abertis, Acciona, Amala Investment Advisors, Barcelona City Council, Madrid City Council, Caixabank, the Spanish Chamber of Commerce, Casa Asia, CDTI, Chaincorp, ICEX, IE Business School, Indra, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism and SEPIE.
