The extraordinary meeting of the Ibero-American Ministers for Foreign Affairs has been held this afternoon. The representatives of the 22 countries that make up the Ibero-American Conference reaffirmed, at this virtual meeting, their commitment at this difficult time to the area they form part of and, particularly, to the 27th Summit of Heads of State and Government in the spring, that will be held in Andorra, a country that holds the Rotating Presidency from 2019 to 2021.

Minster González Laya, accompanied by the State Secretary for Foreign Affairs and for Ibero-America and the Caribbean, Cristina Gallach, and the State Secretary for International Cooperation, Ángeles Moreno Bau, took the opportunity to recall that the Ibero-American area is a priority for Spain In this regard, remarked the Spanish State Secretary for Foreign Affairs, opportunities exist to strengthen multilateralism, boost democracy and the rule of law, move united down the path of the Sustainable Development Goals and the 2030 Agenda, address the environmental emergency, promote and protect the rights and participation of women in the response to the pandemic and find new mechanisms for international financing, while building bridges between Latin America and the Caribbean, and Europe.

In this same spirit of the meeting, lies the tremendous challenge that the health crisis represents for Ibero-America, which nevertheless comes out strengthened as a forum for cooperation with real repercussions on the lives of its citizens. The leadership of Andorra has allowed continuity to be given to all the ministerial meetings and activities prior to the Summit, in a virtual format. In all of these, the Ibero-American countries have secured commitments to push through joint initiatives in a range of areas: tourism, the environment, education, the reform of the public administration, science, technology and innovation, with a view to tackling the pandemic and boosting innovation for sustainable development – the original core subject of Andorra with a view to the 2030 Agenda.

To achieve that, the support of the Ibero-American Secretariat-General (Spanish acronym: SEGIB) has been fundamental which, in turn, as set out by Rebeca Grynspan, its Secretary-General, had to alter its schedule of activities to focus on the fight against the pandemic. As a result of this, initiatives have arisen for countries to share information and strategies, and to maintain close collaboration with such Ibero-American networks as the Network of Authorities in Medicines (Spanish acronym: EAMI) and the Ibero-American Ministerial Network for Health Education and Research in (Spanish acronym: RIMAIS).

All of this has been shored up at this meeting, which culminated with a Declaration by the Andorran Presidency that includes the interest of all the countries in overcoming the pandemic, and of moving towards a new social pact and the renewal of the role of the State and public authorities to tackle a multidimensional emergency: health, economic, social and environmental. For this reason, it also contains the conclusions of the Ibero-American Working Group, an Ecuadorian initiative to share lines of action that address the socio-economic consequences of Covid-19. Spain has co-led the round-table under this group entitled “New sources of financing” in the wake of the initiative entitled “Together for a response for Latin America and the Caribbean to COVID-19", called by the President of the Government on 24 June.

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