The Diplomat
Italy’s new ambassador to Spain, Giuseppe Maria Buccino Grimaldi, took up his post on Thursday, after presenting his Copies of Letters of Credence to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Buccino Grimaldi, an expert in European affairs, replaces Riccardo Guariglia, who has been appointed Secretary General of the Farnesina, the headquarters of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This Friday he will attend a reception at his residence in Madrid on the occasion of Italy’s National Day.
Hours before, the new ambassador will hold a press conference with the Mayor of Genoa, Marco Bucci, who is in Spain as part of a programme to promote the architectural, historical and cultural heritage of the Ligurian capital.
In a message published on the Embassy’s website, Giuseppe Maria Buccino Grimaldi expresses his “pride and emotion” at taking up his post, and recalls that in a month’s time, Spain will take over the rotating presidency of the European Union. The ambassador is convinced that the coinciding sentiments of the two countries in favour of the natural stability of the enlarged Mediterranean “will blend harmoniously with the full and enthusiastic Europeanism that has always been in the genetic code of Italy and Spain”.
He also points out that, as former Director General for the European Union of the Farnesina and former Ambassador, on two occasions, in Tripoli, he does not hide his enthusiasm at assuming the post, “precisely,” he says, “at a time when Spain will be at the centre of the two main issues that have permeated my 35 years of diplomatic career in Rome and abroad: European integration and the Mediterranean”.
Recalling the centuries-old past of relations between the two countries, he underlines that the present and the future are equally bright. “All areas are at the heart of intense bilateral cooperation: from culture to science, from universities to education, from ecology to the digital transition,” he says.
The ambassador also highlights the vitality of economic-trade relations and the ever-deepening interconnection between the productive systems of Spain and Italy. And he underlines the social dimension of the fact that 280,000 Italians are permanently resident in our country, after the number has doubled in the last decade, and the millions of Italian tourists who visit Spain every year.
In this regard, he recalled the work carried out by the Embassy, the Consulate General in Barcelona, the recently created Vice-Consulate in the Canary Islands, the two Italian Institutes of Culture in Madrid and Barcelona, the ICE, the Honorary Consuls and all the actors of the “Italian System” in Spain and Andorra.
The Ambassador concludes by assuring that the same attention and energy in the service of Italy and the Italians will continue to be the “polar star” of his action in Spain and Andorra, where he is also accredited.
