This afternoon, the State Secretary for Global Spain, Manuel Muñiz, ended his official visit to Berlin, where he informed representatives of the German Government, think tanks and Spanish residents in the country on the new Foreign Action Strategy 2021-2024.
At the meeting with his German counterpart - the State Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Antje Leendertse - Manuel Muñiz analysed the strategic position of Spain and Germany in strengthening multilateralism and in the fields of trade, tax and global health governance.
During the meeting, held at the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the two State secretaries spoke about the National Technology and Global Order Strategy (Spanish acronym: ENTOG) that Global Spain is currently working on, and which will serve as a roadmap to boost Spanish technological diplomacy – “one of the main issues on the international and trans-Atlantic agenda” - according to Manuel Muñiz. The document, the first of this type developed in our country, seeks to establish Spain’s position in international relations marked by the digital transformation and new technologies.
Manuel Muñiz and Antje Leendertse also reviewed questions relating to economic diplomacy under the portfolios of their respective departments, particularly in relation to the restitution of international mobility with a view to the summer tourist season, in which Germany “is a fundamental country for us”. They also addressed other issues on the international economic agenda shared by both countries, such as progress on negotiations through the OECD on the taxation of digital activity and on large multinational corporations.
Initiative to forge a network of Spanish citizens around the world
Meeting with representatives of the Spanish community in Germany, as part of the Global Spanish Citizenship initiative
The other central element of the visit by Manuel Muñiz to Berlin was to have been in contact with the community of Spanish residents in Germany. To this end, the State secretary held a meeting yesterday with Spanish representatives from the world of science, culture, universities, the economy and tourism. This meeting was framed within the Spanish Global Citizenship initiative, promoted by its State secretary and which, as he explained, “seeks to identify, get to know and better connect these groups of Spaniards abroad”.
As part of this project, in the last few weeks, Global Spain has undertaken such actions as a virtual meeting with some 100 Spaniards that work for international organisations and a coordination meeting with the regional governments to forge synergies to improve the connection of Spanish talent around the world.
Meeting with representatives of German think tanks
The agenda in Berlin allowed the State secretary to meet with representatives of German think tanks, where he analysed the Spanish Foreign Action Strategy and stressed the importance of “maintaining efforts to remain in contact with these think tanks at an international level, to showcase what Spain is doing and to receive suggestions”.