The Diplomat
The Council of Ministers authorized this past Tuesday a voluntary contribution of $10,000 (just over 9,500 euros) to the Ibero-American Diplomatic Archives Network (RADI), a program of the Ibero-American Summit to protect historical archives and preserve the Ibero-American memory and in which Spain currently holds the rotating presidency.
The Ibero-American Diplomatic Archives Network was approved at the VIII Ibero-American Summit, held in Oporto in 1998, and was established as a program in 2006, adapting to the operational manual of the Ibero-American General Secretariat (SEGIB). RADI is also part of the Ibero-American Cultural Space (ECI), in which SEGIB and the Organization of Ibero-American States for Education, Science and Culture (OEI) participate. RADI is made up of representatives of the Diplomatic Archives of: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Portugal, Spain, Uruguay and Venezuela.
The main objective of the network is to promote cooperation in the organization, administration, conservation and use of the archives systems of the Ibero-American foreign ministries in order to modernize the administration of the documentary collections in their custody and improve document management practices for the benefit of the countries, the foreign ministries themselves and national and foreign users. The network participates in UNESCO’s archival cooperation programs, has its own cooperation programs, on-line training courses in archives management and a web page on which the work of the RADI and the ministerial archives of the participating countries is posted. It is financed by voluntary contributions from its members. The minimum fee established for all participants is US$7,000, and any contribution in excess of this amount must be voluntary.
Spain, through the General Technical Secretariat of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, currently holds the presidency of this program for the period 2022-2024, as agreed at the XXIII Meeting of the Network of Ibero-American Diplomatic Archives, held on December 16, 2021. The XXIV Meeting of the Network of Ibero-American Diplomatic Archives will be held in Madrid in October 2022. For this reason, as it did last year, the Government will make a voluntary contribution of US$10,000 in 2022 through the OEI, based in Madrid, with which the RADI has a collaboration agreement.
