The Secretary State for International Cooperation (SECI) is a senior minister of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation of the

Spanish government gl, Goberno de España eu, Espainiako Gobernua , image = , caption = Logo of the Government of Spain , headerstyle = background-color: #efefef , label1 = Role , data1 = Executive power , label2 = Established , da ...

. The SECIPIC is appointed by the

King King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...

with the advise of the Foreign Minister. The Secretary State for International Cooperation is responsible for the Spanish

international cooperation for development International development or global development is a broad concept denoting the idea that societies and countries have differing levels of economic or human development on an international scale. It is the basis for international classifications ...

policies (especially focused on

Latin America Latin America or * french: Amérique Latine, link=no * ht, Amerik Latin, link=no * pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived f ...

and

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

). As the highest official in charge of the Spanish international cooperation, the SECIPIC is also the President of the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID).

History

The international cooperation and development policy of

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

exists since the

Francoist Spain Francoist Spain ( es, España franquista), or the Francoist dictatorship (), was the period of Spanish history between 1939 and 1975, when Francisco Franco ruled Spain after the Spanish Civil War with the title . After his death in 1975, Spai ...

and the relations with

since the independence of their current states. During the first years of democracy, the competences over this matters were attached to bodies with the rank of directorate-general or less, however, the

socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the ...

government of

Felipe Gonzalez Felipe is the Spanish variant of the name Philip, which derives from the Greek adjective ''Philippos'' "friend of horses". Felipe is also widely used in Portuguese-speaking Brazil alongside Filipe, the form commonly used in Portugal. Noteworthy pe ...

decided in 1985 to create the current Secretariat of State with the aim to get an "effective cooperation with all the peoples of the Earth", a mandate collected in the preamble of the

Spanish Constitution The Spanish Constitution (Spanish, Asturleonese, and gl, Constitución Española; eu, Espainiako Konstituzioa; ca, Constitució Espanyola; oc, Constitucion espanhòla) is the democratic law that is supreme in the Kingdom of Spain. It was e ...

(

Constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When these princ ...

br>§ Preamble
. Although international cooperation for development is destined for countries around the world, due to historical and cultural ties most of this Spanish cooperation goes to Latin America and the former Spanish territories of Africa like Equatorial Guinea,

Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria t ...

Western Sahara Western Sahara ( '; ; ) is a disputed territory on the northwest coast and in the Maghreb region of North and West Africa. About 20% of the territory is controlled by the self-proclaimed Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), while the ...

, and also to Asian countries such as the

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

, also former Spanish territories. The most significant change since its creation was in 2004, when the competencies of the foreign policy of Spain in Ibero-American were transferred to the Secretariat of State for Foreign Affairs, competences that were recovered in very late 2011. In 2017 the name was extended to include the Caribbean in the denomination in order to target the objective of at-that-time Foreign Minister

Alfonso Dastis Alfonso María Dastis Quecedo (born October 5, 1955) is a Spanish diplomat, who served as Minister of Foreign Affairs of Spain from 2016 until 1 June 2018, when a vote of no-confidence against Mariano Rajoy ousted the government. Prior to becomin ...

to impulse the relations with that geographical area. In 2020, the Secretariat of State lost is responsibilities over Ibero-American affairs.

Name

* Secretary of State for International Cooperation and for Ibero-America (1985-2004) * Secretary of State for International Cooperation (2004-2011) * Secretary of State for International Cooperation and for Ibero-America (2011-2017) * Secretary of State for International Cooperation and for Ibero-America and the Caribbean (2017–2020) * Secretary of State for International Cooperation (2020–present)

Structure

The Secretariat of State is divided in two departments: * The Directorate-General for Sustainable Development Policies. *: It's the department responsible for the execution of the Spanish International Cooperation and Development Plan respecting the framework established by the Sustainable Development Goals of the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoniz ...

and coordinating the different public administrations. It's also responsible for participate in the international meetings about its competences (particularly of the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been de ...

but also with the UN,

G20 The G20 or Group of Twenty is an intergovernmental forum comprising 19 countries and the European Union (EU). It works to address major issues related to the global economy, such as international financial stability, climate change mitigatio ...

OECD The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD; french: Organisation de coopération et de développement économiques, ''OCDE'') is an intergovernmental organisation with 38 member countries, founded in 1961 to stimulate e ...

, among others) and the negotiation of international treaties about this matter. *: It's divided in three departments: the ''Deputy Directorates-General for Planning and Policy Coherence'' and ''for Multilateral and European Development Policies'' and the ''Division for Evaluation of Policies for Development and Knowledge Management''. The Director-General for Sustainable Development Policies is the Vice-President of the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation. Although they are not departments and act with autonomy, the

Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation The Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) ( es, link=no, Agencia Española de Cooperación Internacional para el Desarrollo) is a Spanish autonomous agency responsible for the management of the Government internationa ...

, the Cervantes Institute and the Royal Academy of Spain in Rome depend from the Secretariat of State.

List of SECIPICs

# Luis Yáñez-Barnuevo (August 30, 1985 – April 10, 1991) # Inocencio Arias (April 10-1991-September 18, 1993) # José Luis Dicenta Ballester (September 18, 1993-December 23, 1995) # Miguel Ángel Carriedo Mompín (December 23, 1995 – May 14, 1996) # Fernando María Villalonga Campos (May 14, 1996 – May 6, 2000) # Miguel Ángel Cortés Martín (May 6, 2000 – April 20, 2004) #

Leire Pajín Leire Pajín Iraola (born September 16, 1976) is a Spanish socialist politician. She served as a minister under José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. Early life and education Pajín was born in San Sebastián but moved with her parents to Benidorm wh ...

(April 20, 2004 – July 12, 2008) # Maria Soraya Rodriguez Ramos (July 12, 2008 – December 24, 2011) # Jesús Manuel Gracia Aldaz (January 6, 2012 – December 12, 2016) # Fernando García Casas (December 12, 2016 – June 23, 2018) # Juan Pablo de Laiglesia (June 23, 2018 – February 5, 2020) #

Ángeles Moreno Bau Ángeles Moreno Bau (born 1968) is a Spanish diplomat who has been serving as the 14th and current Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs in the government of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez since 2021. Previously, she served as the 12th Secretar ...

(February 5, 2020 – July 21, 2021) # Pilar Cancela Rodríguez (July 21, 2021 – present)

References

{{Reflist Secretaries of State of Spain Foreign ministers of Spain International development agencies

History

Name

Structure

List of SECIPICs

See also

References