José Manuel Albares Bueno (born 22 March 1972) is a Spanish diplomat who has been serving as
Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation in the government of
Prime Minister
A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is ...
Pedro Sánchez
Pedro Sánchez Pérez-Castejón (; born 29 February 1972) is a Spanish politician who has been Prime Minister of Spain since June 2018. He has also been Secretary-General of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) since June 2017, having pr ...
since 2021.
Early life and education
Born in 1972 in Madrid, he was raised in a humble family from
Usera
Usera is a district of Madrid, Spain. It lies on the southern (right) bank of the Manzanares. It is home to about a 10% of the Chinese citizens in the whole Madrid region.
History
The district was created in the city restructuring that took ...
.
Albares earned a
licentiate degree
A licentiate (abbreviated Lic.) is an academic degree present in many countries, representing different educational levels.
It may be similar to a master's degree when issued by pontifical universities and other universities in Europe, Latin Am ...
in Law from the
University of Deusto and also a diploma in Business Sciences.
Career in the diplomatic service
As he joined the diplomatic career, Albares served as consul in
Bogotá
Bogotá (, also , , ), officially Bogotá, Distrito Capital, abbreviated Bogotá, D.C., and formerly known as Santa Fe de Bogotá (; ) during the Spanish period and between 1991 and 2000, is the capital city of Colombia, and one of the largest ...
, as well as advisor in the Permanent Representation of Spain before the
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 ...
.
Key advisor of
PSOE
The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party ( es, Partido Socialista Obrero Español ; PSOE ) is a social-democraticThe PSOE is described as a social-democratic party by numerous sources:
*
*
*
* political party in Spain. The PSOE has been in gov ...
's
Pedro Sánchez
Pedro Sánchez Pérez-Castejón (; born 29 February 1972) is a Spanish politician who has been Prime Minister of Spain since June 2018. He has also been Secretary-General of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) since June 2017, having pr ...
during the latter's first spell as party leader, Sánchez appointed Albares to a post in the
Prime Minister Cabinet Office, once he became Prime Minister in June 2018: Secretary General of International Affairs, European Union, G20 and Global Security, with rank of Under-Secretary. Albares, who left then a post as cultural attaché in the Spanish embassy in Paris,
was sworn in on 21 June. Affiliated to the PSOE's grouping in Paris, he was chosen as one of the drafters of the framework presentation for the party's 40th federal congress.
Albares was appointed as Ambassador to France in February 2020 and to Monaco in May 2020.
Minister of Foreign Affairs
In July 2021, Albares was revealed as Sánchez' pick as
Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation in a
cabinet reshuffle
A cabinet reshuffle or shuffle occurs when a head of government rotates or changes the composition of ministers in their cabinet, or when the Head of State changes the head of government and a number of ministers. They are more common in parliam ...
.
He was sworn on into office on 12 July 2021.
During his first days as head of the Foreign Department, Albares managed to reduce tensions with
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 ...
and rebuild relations after Spain allowed, for humanitarian reasons, the Saharawi leader,
Brahim Ghali
Brahim Ghali () ( ar, rtl=yes, إبراهيم غالي, Ibrāhīm Ġālī; es, Brahim Gali; born 16 September 1949) is a Sahrawi politician and military officer that serves as the current president of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) ...
, to be treated in a hospital in
Logroño
Logroño () is the capital of the province of La Rioja, situated in northern Spain. Traversed in its northern part by the Ebro River, Logroño has historically been a place of passage, such as the Camino de Santiago. Its borders were disputed b ...
. Proof of this were the declarations of King
Mohammed VI of Morocco
Mohammed VI ( ar, محمد السادس; born 21 August 1963) is the King of Morocco. He belongs to the 'Alawi dynasty and acceded to the throne on 23 July 1999, upon the death of his father, King Hassan II.
Upon ascending to the throne, Moh ...
, who assured in August 2021 that he wanted to "inaugurate an unprecedented stage" in relations between the two countries.
Albares addressed the Foreign Affairs Committee of the
Congress of Deputies
The Congress of Deputies ( es, link=no, Congreso de los Diputados, italic=unset) is the lower house of the Cortes Generales, Spain's legislative branch. The Congress meets in the Palace of the Parliament () in Madrid.
It has 350 members ele ...
for the first time on 30 August 2021, to give an account of his first decisions as head of the
Foreign Ministry, the general lines that he would develop and the
2021 Afghanistan crisis. In his appearance, he revealed that on 15 July 2021 his Department, through the Embassy in Afghanistan, warned and recommended the Spanish nationals in the country to leave it. This allowed that, when the Afghan crisis broke out, only five Spanish nationals remained, in addition to diplomatic and security personnel.
He also announced that the government had no intention of recognizing the new
Taliban
The Taliban (; ps, طالبان, ṭālibān, lit=students or 'seekers'), which also refers to itself by its state name, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a Deobandi Islamic fundamentalist, militant Islamist, jihadist, and Pas ...
government and that they would continue to remove people from Afghanistan by other means.
In October 2021, in a joint operation with the
Ministry of Defence
{{unsourced, date=February 2021
A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is an often-used name for the part of a government responsible for matters of defence, found in state ...
, the government evacuated via
Pakistan
Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...
more than 240 colaborators and their families.
As for general policy, Albares demanded that the opposition treat foreign policy as a "state policy",
and regarding the restructuring that he carried out in the Ministry as soon as he took office, he affirmed that one of his objectives was to strengthen the policy on
North Africa
North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in t ...
, the
Sahel
The Sahel (; ar, ساحل ' , "coast, shore") is a region in North Africa. It is defined as the ecoclimatic and biogeographic realm of transition between the Sahara to the north and the Sudanian savanna to the south. Having a hot semi-arid c ...
and
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 ...
, highlighting about the latter that he considers "all Ibero-American countries equally important, regardless of their size or economic weight".

Another issue that he had to deal with as head of the Foreign Ministry was to guarantee the permanence in Spain of the
World Tourism Organization
The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) is the United Nations specialized agency entrusted with the promotion of responsible, sustainable and universally accessible tourism. Its headquarters are in Madrid, Spain. UNWTO is the leading interna ...
(UNWTO). For a few months, it had been rumored that
Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the List of Asian countries by area, fifth-largest country in Asia ...
planned to make a proposal to move the headquarters to his country and that the then Secretary-General,
Zurab Pololikashvili
Zurab Pololikashvili (born in Tbilisi on 12 January 1977) is a Georgian politician and diplomat, currently serving as Secretary-General of the World Tourism Organization. From 2005 to 2009 he was Georgian deputy Foreign Minister, and he served a ...
, wouldn't oppose it. Despite being only rumors and the silence of the Secretary-General in this regard, the government, headed Albares, carried out a diplomatic offensive consisting of fulfilling the existing promise to give the UNWTO a new headquarters and a series of consultations with ambassadors from different countries, which allowed Spain to guarantee a blocking minority with European and Latin American countries in the event of the Saudi proposal. Finally, Saudi Arabia informed the Government of Spain that it would not present any candidacy.
In relation to the
2021–2022 Russo-Ukrainian crisis, he declared in January that the Spanish government was committed to dialogue as a distinguishing feature of European foreign policy but that "it had to be very clear
ith Russia dialogue it is not negotiation. We cannot accept things that are unacceptable", and said "no one can mark who can be a member of an international organization and who cannot", in relation to the possible accession of Ukraine to
NATO
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...
or 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 ...
. Following the
Bucha massacre
The Bucha massacre ( uk, Бучанська різанина, Buchanska rizanyna) was the mass murder of Ukrainian civilians by Russian Armed Forces during the fight for and occupation of the Ukrainian city of Bucha amid the Russian invas ...
in April 2022, Albares expelled some 25 Russian diplomats and embassy staff from Madrid, joining other European Union countries in its response to alleged war crimes by Russian troops in Ukraine.
Other activities
*
Elcano Royal Institute for International and Strategic Studies, Member of the Board of Trustees
Board of Trustees
Elcano Royal Institute for International and Strategic Studies.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Albares, Jose Manuel
Spanish diplomats
1972 births
Living people
Ambassadors of Spain to France
Foreign ministers of Spain
People from Madrid