Foreign Affairs brings together all the ambassadors starting tomorrow to coordinate foreign policy and prepare for the EU Presidency

The King will close on Tuesday the Conference of Ambassadors that Sánchez inaugurates this Monday together with Albares

MADRID, 8 Ene. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation will host this Monday and Tuesday the VII Conference of Ambassadors whose main objective is to review the challenges in foreign policy for the coming year and prepare the rotating Presidency of the EU that Spain will hold in the second semester of 2023.

The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, will be in charge of inaugurating the event, together with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, early on Monday, while King Felipe VI will be in charge of closing it, on Tuesday morning. late.

In between, as explained by Foreign Affairs, the 123 ambassadors that Spain has in countries around the world and before international organizations will have the opportunity to analyze the challenges of international politics and the opportunities of the semester of the Spanish Presidency of the EU.

For this, it is also expected that the first vice president, Nadia Calviño, as well as the Minister of Industry, Commerce and Tourism, Reyes Maroto, will attend the conference, and some other minister could also do so. In addition, on this occasion, the European Commissioner for International Associations, Jutta Urpilainen, will also intervene

Likewise, the meeting will be attended by the Secretaries of State for Foreign and Global Affairs, Ángeles Moreno Bau; European Union, Pascual Navarro; Latin America and the Caribbean and Spanish in the world, Juan Fernández Trigo; and International Cooperation, Pilar Cancela, as well as the Foreign Undersecretary, Luis Cuesta, and the director of the AECID, Antón Leis.

As diplomatic sources have explained to Europa Press, on the second day it is expected that the ambassadors will be divided into working groups based on their geographical area to address the challenges and issues related to those areas with the relevant director general.

Thus, a total of six of these working groups are planned: Europe; Latin America and the Caribbean; North Africa and the Middle East; Africa; North America, Eastern Europe and Asia-Pacific; and multilateral.

The ambassadors will also have the opportunity to talk with the director of the Foreign Service, María Hilda Jiménez, as well as with the director of Spaniards Abroad and Consular Affairs, Xavier Martí, with whom they will be able to discuss specific issues regarding their work, in the case of the second, on everything related to the granting of nationality under the new Law of Democratic Memory.

The meeting will be the first fully face-to-face since 2008, since in 2021 the then Foreign Minister, Arancha González Laya, recovered a forum convened for the first time in 2001 under the Presidency of José María Aznar, but only a few ambassadors attended in person to Madrid while the majority participated electronically.