RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – At the beginning of his two-day working visit, the King of Spain, Felipe VI, met Thursday (29) in Madrid with the Vice President of Bolivia, David Choquehuanca, who also plans to meet with several ministers of the Spanish Government.
Choquehuanca’s presence is part of “the agenda of cooperation” outlined by the Bolivian president, Luis Arce, and the aspiration to “strengthen relations with Spain within the diplomacy of the peoples,” advised the Bolivian Embassy in Madrid.
Read also: Check out our coverage on Bolivia
The king received the vice-president at his residence in the Zarzuela Palace. Both, protected by a mask, greeted each other with a hand to the heart before the family photo with members of the delegations of both countries.
During the meeting in the monarch’s office, they exchanged impressions on the state of bilateral relations.
Choquehuanca’s visit to Madrid takes place a little more than a month before Arce’s first year in office as head of the country.
At his inauguration on November 8, 2020, Felipe VI represented Spain with the then second vice-president of the Spanish Government, Pablo Iglesias. The monarch met Arce again at the inauguration of Peru’s President Pedro Castillo last July.
Relations between Spain and Bolivia had a crisis in December 2019, during the previous interim president, Jeanine Áñez.
The crisis was a consequence of a visit that two Spanish diplomats, accompanied by four police officers, made to the residence of the Mexican ambassador in La Paz, where former officials of former president Evo Morales were staying. However, both countries later agreed to normalize relations.
During the two days he will be in Madrid, Choquehuanca plans to meet separately with the Spanish Ministers of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares; Social Rights, Ione Belarra; and Consumption, Alberto Garzón, adds a note from the embassy.
He will also meet with the president of the Congress, Meritxell Batet; with the president of the Senate, Ander Gil; and with the leaders of the trade unions UGT and CCOO, Pepe Álvarez and Unai Sordo, respectively.
The former Foreign Minister of Bolivia between January 2006 and January 2017, during the first three governments of Evo Morales, will participate this Friday in the Tribuna EFE-Casa América.
His program is completed with a meeting with the Bolivian community in Spain, where some 90,000 citizens of the South American country live.