The Diplomat
The ambassador of the Republic of Serbia, Irena Šarac, has presented in Madrid the Order of the Serbian Flag of the First Degree to Raúl Bartolomé Molina, who until last November was ambassador of Spain in Belgrade.
The event took place last Wednesday at the headquarters of the Serbian Embassy and was attended by the State Secretary of the European Union, Fernando Sampedro; the director of his Cabinet, Ricardo Díez-Hichleitner; family and friends of the Spanish diplomat, who in a couple of weeks will join his new position as ‘number two’ at the Spanish Embassy in Paris.
Irena Šarac recalled, before awarding the distinction to Raúl Bartolomé, that it was awarded to him by the President of the Republic, Aleksander Vučić, for his contribution to the development and strengthening of bilateral relations between Serbia and Spain. The ambassador stressed that during the almost five years that Bartolomé remained at the head of the Spanish diplomatic representation, these relations reached a historically high level in various areas and today are “exceptional.”
Likewise, Irena Šarac thanked “Spain’s continued support” for two clear priorities of Serbia. On the one hand, “the defense of territorial integrity”, in clear reference to the dispute with Kosovo, whose independence is not recognized by our country. And on the other, support for the path towards integration into the European Union.
The ambassador expressed her desire to increase these bilateral relations and recalled the visit that the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, made to Belgrade in July 2022; and the one that the Serbian president made to Madrid in February of that same year, as well as the exchanges of visits by authorities from the two countries. And as for the economic sector, she was convinced that “it has great potential that has not yet been explored,” and she also referred to the direct flights maintained by the national airline “Air Serbia.”
For his part, Raúl Bartolomé thanked the decoration and also referred to the increase in bilateral relations, and specifically, to the fact that in the last five years trade between the two countries has almost tripled, although he said that there is still much to do. . He described the political relations as excellent, highlighting that during the time he remained as ambassador a total of eleven ministers traveled to Spain and there was the first visit of a President of the Spanish Government to Serbia, and several bilateral agreements were signed, especially in the field commercial.
The event was closed by the State Secretary of the EU, highlighting the professional career of Raúl Bartolomé and the level of political, economic and cultural relations between Spain and Serbia. Sampedro agreed that there is still room for increasing economic relations.
