 Good morning, everyone, and welcome here to CSIS. My name is Carl Meacham, and I am the director of the America's program here. And I am really excited to have the minister, Jesús Gracia Aldaz, with us today, the Spanish Secretary of State for International Cooperation and for Ibero-America, to chat about the changing dynamics of the relationship between Latin American countries and Spain. Prior to his current post, Mr. Gracia served as technical cooperation adviser at the Embassy of Spain in Costa Rica. He was also the consul general in Córdoba, Argentina, and the chief of staff of the vice president of the Institute for Ibero-American Cooperation. On May 1996, he was appointed director general of the Institute for Ibero-American Cooperation, a post he held until November 1999. In 2001, he was appointed ambassador of Spain to Cuba, a post he held until 2004. And after a period in the private sector, his last diplomatic post before being appointed secretary of state for international cooperation and for Ibero-American 2012 was that of minister at council at the Embassy of Spain in Buenos Aires. So needless to say, the secretary is very, very competent and very, very qualified and has done some amazing, I was going to say awesome, I've been with my kids for the last two weeks, an amazing job for Spain. So I couldn't be happier to have him with us today. Before turning the floor over to the secretary, I just want to give you a sense or to the minister, I just want to give you a sense of how Spain's relationship with countries in Latin America has begun to shift over the past couple of years. As you all know, Spain and Latin America have a long history and a lot in common. Their shared history and culture have historically served as the foundation for their political and economic ties and traditionally those ties have been largely driven by Spain's interests. What we've seen in recent years, though, is a notable shift in that dynamic. As Latin American countries have developed tremendously over the past decade, they are increasingly asserting themselves in their relations abroad. They are, in short, better positioned, many are better positioned than ever before to take on their partners abroad as equal players. And those changes are reflected in the numbers. Over the past year alone, Latin America increased its investment in Spain by 48%. As business here in the Americas came to view Spain as a rational way to expand and diversify, particularly given their shared language and the potential for entry into the European Union's market. What has traditionally been a one-way investment flow has developed into a much more reciprocal relationship. And Spain's Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and former King Juan Carlos both acknowledged this shift, even encouraging Latin American countries to invest more in Spain. And migration patterns are shifting too. And perhaps this isn't surprising given Spain's economic situation, even though we could say that it's rebounding, and high economic growth rates in Latin America. The past five years have seen a 400% increase in Spanish immigrants to Latin America. And the same period, Spain saw a 61% reduction in Latin Americans applying for residency visas. So, however, whichever way you look at it, dynamics are shifting. Hopefully today's event will help to shed some light on these changes and on the redefinition of these transatlantic relationships. We'll touch on Spain's priorities in the region, the relationship with the United States in working with Latin America, as well as its vision moving forward with these partners in Latin America. Before I start, or before we start, I want to remind you all that today's event is on the record and that we're webcasting the proceedings live to our audience online. When we get to the Q&A portion, I would ask that you wait for a member of my staff to get to you with the microphone, that you be brief in your question, or if you have something short that you want to share with the rest of the audience. With that, Mr. Gracia, I turn the floor over to you. I welcome you. We're very happy to have you, and the floor is yours. See? From here. Perfect. Thank you, and thank you, CSIS, for giving me this opportunity to talk to you this morning and to share with you some ideas about the importance that Spain gives to its relation with Latin America. Our king, Felipe Sexto, and then Crown Prince Philip, two years ago, said at a speech in Harvard that Spain is an American nation. An American nation in the whole sense of America, not only Latin America, but also including the United States, because our history, our shared history with America dates back for more than 500 years. We have been present in the region since that time with an increasing interest in the region. We have shared 300 years of common kingdom. Sometimes people speak about the colonial times, and in fact it was never a colony. The part of Latin America or the America were part of the kingdom, and we sent here vise kings or vise reyes, and these were vise kingdoms, and this was part of Spain. And that's something important to understand, that this is not only a part or a geographical interest or priority of our foreign relations, it's part of our own being. If we want to understand Spain, we have to understand this with the American dimension. And on the other hand, if you want to understand especially Latin America, but also part of the American history, you have to take into account this part of shared history with Spain, the Spanish roots, the Spanish missions in California. We are going to celebrate next year the foundation of the first city in North America, San Agustín. We celebrated last year the 500 years of the arrival of Ponce de León at Florida, and so many ties that have kept us together for so many years. So I think this is true. We are an American nation. It's an American nation. We have different interests. We are part of Europe, of course. And our history also and our geography brings us to Europe. And the first important endeavor of democratic Spain after King Juan Carlos took office and was crowned in 1975 was our interest in being fully part of the European Union. And that's something that with the contribution of all the political parties in the Spanish society, we got in 1985 and we are members of the European Union since that date. And this has brought to Spain prosperity and this has brought sound democracy. And this has brought also the capacity to act in the world. And once we reach this European dimension that was something that was due to Spain because of geography and culture and because of our ambition, we had to build also our Latin America dimension. And this Latin American dimension has always existed along the years. And if you look back in the 19th century or in the 20th century, even under Franco's times, at the times of the dictatorship in Spain, there was a huge relationship based at that time in language and culture. There is a lot of institutes, institutes of Hispanic culture all over Latin America. And there was a relationship also based on migration. When Spain was in trouble, when we had some difficulties in our labor market at the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century, well, the natural way to escape these hardships in Spain was traveling to Latin America. So there are huge and very important colonies of Spaniards in all Latin American countries. It's much more important the migrations that took place in the 19th and 20th century from Spain to Latin America than the ones that took place under the vice kingdoms or under the time that we were part of Latin America, was part of the Spanish kingdom. So this has been a tradition and a way of acting in the world. And after that, when we had the capacity to act in a more important way or in a more confident way in the world, when Spain was to open to the world, first, as I said, we had to go to Europe, we had to be part of Europe. But the second dimension, the second priority for us was to work in Latin America. And if you see in the last 35 years, 40 years since our constitution in 1978, we have built a network of interests with all Latin American countries that I think that is not equal to any country in the world except probably the United States. We are present at all levels of Latin America society, of all levels of Latin America life, everyday life. First we started with a political engagement and in this part I want to highlight the role of King Juan Carlos. He was the first king to travel to Latin America in spite of 300 years of common government in the old times. No king from Spain had traveled to Latin America. In 1976 he traveled to, I was the king of Spain, to the Dominican Republic and the then-president said, Majesty, we have been waiting for you for 500 years. Finally, you arrived. But he played an important role in the linkage between Latin America and Spain. And he's traveled around Latin America all to all countries and he's built a network of interests and also a network of friendship all around Latin America. Second, we had a success story, the story of Spanish transition. And this is something that has been very useful to most Latin American countries. I used to say that the idea of people of my generation in Spain of Latin America is a Latin America that has been striving to get out of poverty or to improve their quality of life and the quality of democracy in most of the countries. But this is because of the decay of Latin America in the 70s and the 80s especially. And this wasn't true in the 40s and in the 50s and previously. But what we found when Spain reached democracy and when Spain reached prosperity through our partnership in the European Union, we found in Latin America that was suffering in many cases lack of democracy, that was suffering also tremendous difficulties in their economies. So the idea of engaging again with Latin America became natural to engage in political terms. And the Spanish transition served as a model for many Latin American countries. And we were the solidarity of Spain with most countries, especially in South America, Chile, Argentina, Peru, many of the countries that were suffering dictatorships at that time. They benefited from the solidarity and from the support of the Spanish governments all along these years. Second, we had also the idea of solidarity. And when Spain joined the European Union, we were obliged also as a European country to share part of our welfare and of our riches with other parts of the world. And naturally, from Spain, our idea from past governments and governments of the two main parties in Spain, Popular Party and Socialist Party, we all agreed that we had to start with Latin America, especially Central America. But many countries in Latin America have benefited from the solidarity of the Spanish people. So we established a network of development cooperation in Latin America in most countries. And I think that it's been quite successful. We have been present at the transitions in Central America, the end of wars, of civil wars in Latin America. We have been working with the military, with the security forces, with social programs all over Latin America. But also in bigger countries such as Peru, I think that Peru is one of the most successful countries now in Latin America. But it was a country that in the 80s was about to disappear. It was almost a failed state in the late 70s and in the 80s. And people said, what can we do in Peru? There is terrorism by sending the shining path, which was outrageous. There was inflation, there was a wreck of finances. All you could see in Peru was difficulties and hopeless. And we have been active in our cooperation with Peru since the 1980s. And we have been accompanying Peru and the different Peruvian governments all along these years. And now that Peru is attracting capital, that is a country that is reducing the inequalities. It's a country that is, I think, is a good example in most of the world. I think that we can be proud that we have been, we were not the main force in the change in Peru. But we have been, together with Peru, we have been accompanying Peru in this path towards a better life. So solidarity, development cooperation has been also an important part of the engagement of Spain with Latin America. And the third idea on this engagement has been investment. When in 1988, 89, Spain was already part of the European Union. We had benefited from the good governance and from the solidarity of our friends from other parts of Europe. We had a very small private sector, mainly coming from a public sector that was under way of privatization in most fields of the economy. And Spanish companies felt the need to expand. They had the European market open, which was very beneficial for us. But we had to expand. My first post as a diplomat was in Costa Rica in 1988, and I was envious of the Dutch or of the Belgians, because even they were small countries. They have multinationals. You could see Philips or you could see the Heineken or many brands that were well-known brands. And we didn't have any. And now, 20, 25 years later, you can see, you go to Sao Paolo, you see Santander, you see Telefonica, you see Verdrola, you see most of the companies that are relevant in the important sectors of the Latin America economy come from Spain and are now part of what we call multilatinas or multibericas. They are multinationals that are the result of the cooperation between Latin America and Spain. So, the investment in Spain has been very important, has been huge, and has been relevant to the Spanish development in recent years, but also for Latin American countries. We have invested more than €150 billion all over these years, that is the stock of investment in Latin America. Half of this investment has gone to Brazil, which is something that is probably striking. The second recipient country has been Mexico, but what is more important? It's been important in reducing the exposition of Spain to a small market such as our Iberian country or to a homogeneous market such as Europe. And we have been able to open our markets and to also diversify our risk in the world. And during the past crisis, economic crisis, it's been very, very important for us to have multinationals or to have important companies all over the world and part of the benefits and part of the help that we needed to recover from the recent crisis came from Latin America and from the results of the Spanish companies in Latin America. So it's been, I think, beneficial for both parties, for Latin America and for Spain. And also we are engaging in political terms with Latin America. We say that we have a family relationship. And when you are in a family, sometimes you get on with your brother, with your sister, but you don't like very much your brother-in-law or your cousin. And that happens with a family like the Iber-American, Iberian family, the Iber-American family. And our duty, and I think in our interest, is to talk to all the members of the family, to have, to trust them, to try to work with them, because at the end of the day there is solidarity, especially in Latin countries and in countries of Latin origin. We know that the importance of the family is relevant for our welfare. So we talk to all of them. You can get on better with parts of the family, and that's what we do. And I think that we are taking advantage of both countries when we get into this kind of relationship. And I would like to highlight the important, the good relationship that we have now with Mexico, which is important, because when I joined the diplomatic career, it was very difficult for us, the dialogue with Mexico. They came from many years of distrust on Spain, or on the dictatorship, because they were the siege, or they were the headquarters for the remains of the Spanish Republic. So they brought a lot of difficulties in their relationship with new governments in Spain. So we had to renew our political relationship. Mexico is one of the big countries in Latin America, like Peru and the others, but they have a strong pre-Columbian roots that are important in their history and that are important also in the imaginary and the world vision that they have. And they had some kind of, and they are the biggest Spanish-speaking countries, so they were competing with us in terms of language also. But I think that I'm very, very happy that we have managed to bring all of these possible difficulties into a common interest. In the recent trip of President Peña Nieto to Madrid some weeks ago, I'm sure it's been successful for Mexico and for Spain, and we have built a relationship based on trust and on a common interest that I think is valuable for both parties. So this is the network of relations that we have in Latin America. And just to summarize, we had the idea, and King Juan Carlos was one of the driving forces in this idea to establish this family community that we call the Ibero-American summits. And this is something that has been one wonderful invention of policy of foreign relations, because it's been working very well since 1991. The first summit took place in Mexico in Guadalajara, and it's gone to the next summit that will take place this year in Veracruz and in Mexico again. And this will close an era of Ibero-American summits that have allowed Latin American or Ibero-American countries to join when there were great, deep disagreements among most of the countries in Latin America, but we have been able to talk together and to find a common interest within the Ibero-American summit. After Veracruz, we'll have these summits every two years, and I think that we'll have the renewal of the Ibero-American summits that will be also beneficial for us. And I wanted to tell you that that's why Latin America is so important for us. I was telling Carl before we came here, down here, that some touchy issues or Latin American issues are internal affairs in Spain. So when we talk about foreign policy in Latin America, this has a lot of reflect in internal politics in Spain. There is division also on the views on some topics in Latin America, but this is because this is part of our interest and our sentiments, our feelings and how we feel Latin America. So we cannot be dealing with Latin America as we deal with the foreign region. We deal with Latin America as part of our own being and part of our own future. Well, thank you for your opening. You've talked, and there's so many similarities with that last point that you made. For the United States, a lot of the issues that have to do with Latin America also are domestic implications, and we're seeing some of that right now with the immigration issue. We've seen it in the past with Cuba and Florida and electoral votes and different constituencies that you see, Hispanic constituencies that you see in the United States and their participation in different areas. But you talked a lot about the priorities that Spain has in the region. The region is a very diverse region, as you know, and there's a lot of positive things happening in North America. You have energy and commerce. You have countries coming together like through the Pacific Alliance in a way that they'd never come to before. There's the promise of Brazil as well. I wanted to get from you a sense of what do you see are the challenges and what do you see are the promise that the region holds for Spain? If you're looking forward, I mean, and for most of the people that are sitting here, I think it's an easy question to answer, and I think you've touched on some of it. But going forward with the region as diverse as it is, what are the things that were you and what are the things that you see are opportunities for Spain in the region? The difference in the region will not be an ideological difference, I guess, in the future. It will not be about ideology or about socialism or capitalism. I think the difference will be between reforms and non-reforms. And I think that the region as well as other parts of the world needs to update their institutions, to update the economy, to update the education. And these are the challenges that they will have to face because I spoke from the point of view of Spain, but naturally Spain has interest all over the world and also Latin America will have to compete with the rest of the world, not only with the United States or not only it will be relevant in the relationship with Europe or with Spain. But you have to be prepared to compete in a challenging world. In this competition you may be prepared or not. Latin America has, especially South America, has a huge advantage and they have been taking advantage of this fortune for the last decade because the South Americans, they always tell you they have what the world needs. They have territory, they have water, they have natural resources, they have food. So they have a lot of opportunities to be a great part of the world and also to be a leader part or leader geographical region of the world. But to be able to implement all these capacities, they need reforms. And I agree with what President Peña Nieto said in the inauguration speech that they wanted to be a reformist country, a reformist government. And they will have to reform as they have done first, education, labor market, economy to be more competitive, telecommunications, energy and infrastructure. All of these lags in Latin America and all of this is something that governments will have to face in a way or another. Each government will have to decide what is the priority in reforms. But if you don't reform, if you don't update, if you don't get in touch with the world, you won't be able to take advantage of these capacities that you have in the region. You talked a little bit about the Iber-American summit. And I guess a lot of people that follow regional affairs see this proliferation of summits and summit processes. That being the OAS, CELAC, UNASURD, you have all of these summits. And I would say that a lot of folks look at those summits with some skepticism and say, you know, these guys get together, what do they achieve? What do they get out of these summits? I can understand how the Iber-American summit can be a framework for Spain getting together with countries in the region. But can you talk a little bit about what is achieved? What makes it special? What do you do in the Iber-American summit? And what do you achieve that's different from these other ones? In Washington speak, what are the deliverables? Yes. First of all, it was the first idea. And at the time of the first Iber-American summit, nobody could imagine that we would join all the Latin American countries, plus Portugal and Spain, and to admit Cuba at that time, which was something striking for many people. So for Cuba, it was very important to be able to have a forum in a friendly or in a familiar way to discuss some issues that were important at that time. And so I think it was first, the importance is that it was the first forum of this kind. Afterwards, Unasur, Mercosur, Selag have arrived. But they are different, so that they can be a forum for political consultation. It's important for Latin American countries to have their own forum, because they say, well, within the summit of the Americas, we have to share the floor with Canada and the United States. And well, we cannot talk freely, and we are not able to do that. Well, now they have this forum through Selag and somehow with Unasur. And we can see that this is important for Latin Americans, because sometimes you need to be or to feel yourself part of something where you are relevant and where you are important. And the Latin American countries have developed a kind of solidarity, original solidarity, not always working, especially when it comes to soccer. Because if you look at the papers today, you will see that there is no compassion for our friends from Brazil in any Latin American country. But there is a kind of solidarity. Not always solidarity is positive, because sometimes when you are so compassionate with someone else, you don't look at the weakness of this person or of this country, and you are not able to help this person in pinpointing what is not working. But solidarity is something that is natural to human nature, and we have to understand this. And Latin Americans may feel comfortable in a forum where they are alone and they feel that they can manage this idea. So I think it's positive for us. And there is no competition with the Iber-American Summit because what we have done along these years is to focus on the points where we are more effective. And we are effective in education, language, culture, and also in business. And I think that to provide space for business. So these are the four ideas that the new Iber-American Summit or the new Iber-American Conference will be focusing in the future. And the new Secretary-General, Rebecca Greenspan, is aware of this, and she's working in these prospects. And I think that if we don't try to take the place of other forums, we can be very effective. And it's a forum where most Latin American countries and Iber-American countries will feel comfortable and will feel deliverables. We are going to present to the presidents in the next summit some deliverables. I just had a meeting this morning with president of IDB, and we have some ideas of deliverables that I will not tell you right now. But things that are very practical in terms of the interests of Latin America and Iber-American and that working together, Europe and Latin America or the Iber-American Peninsula and Latin America, we can be more effective. And before I open it up to questions from the audience, one last question. My colleague, my fellow colleague, my fellow director that does international cooperation and developments here, Dan Runde, and I wanted to sort of ask this question with that in light. So you're here, you visit with our assistant secretary and other members of our government. What areas does the United States and Spain work on together in the region? Are they areas of assistance? What are the areas of security cooperation? What are the areas in which most of our relationship towards the region exist? No, we share information like with many other countries and we have political dialogue with other countries on Latin America because we are involved in Latin America and other governments, such as even Russia or China, are interested on sharing information. But with the United States is a special relationship and I think this is important because I think that we are the two extra-regional countries that share more important interests with the region. We are working together in Central America for many years in the security strategy for Central America. And one of the topics that we talked about in our meeting yesterday was how can we contribute to ease these problems that you are facing now in the modern. And I think that security and development in the region is crucial for this. It's not only to solve the problems that you have at hand immediately, but we have to play a role in the medium and long term. So we are working on security and we are working on development issues in Central America. And I think that we have to find a new look or a new approach to these issues because probably what we have been doing hasn't worked enough. And we have to be effective also in this manner. We have a very close relationship with all Latin American countries, Central American countries. And I think that we can work together with governments to increase the security patterns in Central America and to increase also the capacity of development of the countries in Central America. I'm going to open it up to questions from the audience. I'm going to start from the back to the front. So we're going to try something different. If you could stand up, please. Sure. Thank you very much for your remarks this morning. I hope you'll allow me to delve on a bit narrower of a topic. My name is Sienna Gershenty. I'm with the Neighborhood International. And we've been very encouraged with what we're seeing with the Spanish right of return for Sephardic Jews who have been expelled from Spain. And I was hoping if you might expand on if that is part of a larger strategic policy towards the region and what, if any, impact you foresee in Latin America. Sophie, I didn't, the, ah. La Vuelta. Yeah. Sure. Would you like me to take two or three questions? Yes. Why don't we go with two more? I think there was the lady there. And we're going to come up to Dan up here. Yeah. Hi, hola. My name is Margan from Spain. I work on science diplomacy. And I'm a researcher at the American Association for the Advancement of Science. I research the scientific and technological cooperation between Spain and Latin America with programs like CIDED, for example. And I would like to ask you what is the, how Spain is integrated scientific and technological cooperation with the region in the larger foreign policy strategy, the larger foreign policy goals. Thank you. And we're going to get up here. Yeah. I'm Dan Rondi. I hold the Shrier Chair here. Nice to see you, Secretary. Thanks for being here. I have two brief comments and a question. First comment is I was a student in Spain a long time ago. And it changed my life in a very positive way. And so I know you have many students in Spain. It's an important part of your diplomacy. And so I'm a product of that. And it was a very positive change for me. So thank you for that. But I want to congratulate Spain on the choice of Rebecca Greenspan. I think she's an excellent leader, someone I know well. She was at UNDP before. She's someone who's very inclusive and has a very sophisticated approach to development. And knows everybody in the region. She's the vice president of Costa Rica. So I think that was a very astute choice. And congratulations. I have a lot of hope for the future of the summit process as a result of that. So here's my question related to this issue about security and development. I think there is a shared interest in the peace process in Colombia. And if you could, between the United States and Spain, there was recently election in Colombia. It's both a security challenge. It's a development challenge. How are you, how is Spain thinking about this? I think you can make the case that perhaps we're going to see peace in our time. And so how do we think about helping get to peace in our time? And how do we help make that peace stick? Thanks. Let me just get this woman here. And then we'll start the question. Silvia Yuzo from El País. You were talking before that the Cumbra Veramerican Summit was one of the first for us where Cuba also was invited, and also the privileged relationship Spain has with Latin America, including Cuba. Now the European Union has abandoned the Posición Común, I don't know. And it's restarting, relaunching the relationship. This also comes also in a time where in the US there are increased voices talking about changing the relationship towards Cuba, maybe not lifting the embargo, but opening up the hand. I have a double question on that. Is this something that you have talked with the US in the sense have they asked you how the European Union is changing the position? How could it work? And second, could you imagine yourself as Spain working as a kind of bridge for this kind of change in the US? Thank you. We'll start with us. Take your pick. Well, first, no, just in order. The Sephardize issue is a very sensitive part of our history. I'm sure that we lost part of our capacity, of our intellectual capacity in the past when the Sephardize were expelled from Spain. So there's been also always a sense of duty towards this community. And recently we passed a law to facilitate the acquisition of the citizenship of these people. We have recently passed this law in Spain. This will work through the Spanish requirements to gain citizenship. We have to be sure that these people belong to the Sephardize community, that they have any attachment to Spain, and that they are interested in renew their ties with Spain. And in this case, they will be welcome to Spain as they are now, but this community will be welcome to Spain as national citizens. I think it's something that we had to do and we are happy to have done in collaboration with the Sephardize communities all over the world. Regarding science technology, one of the main ideas of the main grounds of common interest in Latin America and Portugal and Spain is science, technology, education. And we have the opportunity and we have the chance to share two common languages or two very close languages, Portuguese and Spanish. And that we have 500 million people who speak Spanish all over the world, 50 million of them living in the United States. So language is not all. You can work in a third language or in a common language. But it's important also to develop these skills and to develop the capacities for science and technology. So what we are doing with most Latin American countries is to establish new agreements in order to alleviate the problems that we have to circulate, to have the capacity of mobilizing the talent in our community. So this is what we have called the mobilidad de talent or the talent of mobility. So this is something that we are going to bring to the Iber-American Summit. And this has to do with the problems with universities and with university degrees, how you accept university degrees from one country to another. All the barriers that we have in each country in terms of visas, student visas, and so on. So to alleviate also this burden. And also the capacity to develop a career whilst you have your degree accepted in a country. And this has to do with the bars in the case of lawyers or with the communities or the colegios, as we say, of engineers, architects, and so on. So if we take advantage of this opportunity, I think that we will have more capacity built in all around Latin America or Iber-America. And sometimes most of the countries will benefit from this. Regarding the Rebecca Grinspan was not the choice of Spain. Spain was one part of the countries. And she was elected by acclamation. And we were part of this. But I want to stress that all the Latin American countries are great on this. And they were very, very active in supporting the candidacy of Rebecca. Colombia is, I think, a friendly country. We are very happy that they are in this way of this negotiation to end a war that has been hindering the efforts of Colombia and that has caused so much suffering in Colombia for many years. And we are ready. We are available to work with the Colombian government. We have been contributing to Colombia, to the peace efforts in the past. We are part of the OAS mission for peace in Colombia for many years now. We have been developing part of the development cooperation with Colombia in the past years has been in relation with the peace process and with the reunification of the country or the families, et cetera. We are working with the victims of the conflict. And we have been working with them for many years. And what President Rajoy told President Santos recently said, well, we are available. Whatever you need, we'll do our best to contribute to your efforts. But this is something that has to come from Colombia. In this kind of process, there are a lot of people who want to participate in organizations, countries, be it to be on the spot and to be on the lights. But I think that the most important thing is that the country knows the needs and the country must be able to knock on the door, on the right door to look for help. And in this case, Spain will be available for any question, any requirement from Colombia. And finally, the easiest question, Cuba. One of the things that I try to do when I have public speeches or when I talk about Latin America is say, well, finally I managed to talk about Latin America and not to talk about Cuba. Because as former ambassador to Cuba and as a domestic issuer as Cuba is, it's always touchy for us and for our foreign policy. But I will tell you, we are within the European Union. We have started a negotiation with Cuba to see if we are able to agree on a new cooperation agreement between the European Union and Cuba that preserves the ideas that lie behind the common position that we will have to talk about political dialogue, about political participation, about human rights. And at the same time, if we find grounds of common interest to look forward and to build a positive engagement with Cuba. And this is the mandate that the European Union has now on behalf of the 28th member states. One of them is Spain. If we find a way of negotiating with the Cuban government and there's been a couple of meetings up to now, we find a way to cooperate in a positive manner and in a positive interest for both parties. I think we'll be happy to go into this agreement. And this is our position within the European Union and with Cuba. I think we have time for, I'm sorry? Will you hold on? Well, I think that this is also a domestic issue in the United States. I had the chance to work with Carlos Saladriga some years ago on the program of Brookings Institution. And we had the chance, I had the opportunity to know the interior shape of US policy towards Cuba, which is very complicated to understand from abroad. This is something that has been built along the years. And it has very specific items that we don't manage in other parts of the world. But I think that the United States is in this discussion, the society, the political community, the government. And I'm sure that they will find a way to work with Cuba. I know that the US and Cuba hold meetings and they talk to Cuba in several aspects that are of common interest. And I'm sure that they will find a way of solving this. I think we have time for maybe one or two more questions. Sir? Just get a microphone. Hello, Maximiliano Trujillo from Antonio Burgos and Associates. I wanted to ask a question since you mentioned a couple of times regarding the 50 million of Latino ancestry that live in this country, which will not make us a Latin American country. So not necessarily in your portfolio, but what are the efforts that are being made to harness that to have an investment opportunity in Spain and Spain opening the doors for Europe to the Latino community that is growing here, especially the business community? And as a side note, I know that your foreign minister was in Puerto Rico recently. And Spain can provide some guidance to Puerto Rico, not just how to open Spain, but open Europe, especially considering the circumstances that Puerto Rico is facing right now. Spain going through this similar process, different circumstances, but same feelings of pain and challenges. Maybe you can provide some guidance on that matter as well. Thank you. I think that the force or the importance and the influence of the Hispanic community in the United States is growing and is relevant, especially for the United States. And this country is able to admit, is very flexible at knowing these opportunities and to incorporate these people, these communities in the political game in the United States. So for us, it's very important that 50 million Americans speak Spanish as a mother language or as the original language, and it's something good for us because it's easier to have business with people who speak the same language. And you have a certain common feeling in many aspects. What we are doing is we are respectful of the organization of the United States. And we understand how they are organized and the way they act in this aspect. But we are providing opportunities for the Hispanic leaders in the United States. And we have a program that has allowed us to bring to Spain hundreds of Hispanic leaders to get to know Spain, to get to know the capacities of Spain and the relationship and the possibilities that they have in terms of investment or research or education and so on. So we receive every year a group of Hispanic leaders and there is a network of these Spanish leaders who come to Spain through the Carolina Foundation and I think that this is something positive for all of us. Regarding Puerto Rico, as I say, well, I think that there is investment in Puerto Rico as there is in other states of the United States because there is a lot of investment of Spanish companies in the United States without relation with the origin or with the cultural ties. There are investments in the field of energy that are very important in many states of the United States. And Puerto Rico has enjoyed also part of the investment of Spanish companies, especially in the financial and infrastructure sectors. So Puerto Rico has the capability and the possibility of increasing the investment from Spain and they can do it through their bilateral relation between the United States and Spain and they can come also to Spain as they do in commercial trade and investment missions. So this is nothing different from other parts of the states. Great. I think I'm going to close it, but there was one issue that didn't come up that I'm just going to ask you about, which is how do you see the new king being active in the region? Do you see a continuity from his father or do you think that it will change in any other way? No, no, I'm sure he will continue the work and the efforts of King Juan Carlos because King Felipe has been traveling to the region for many years. Since 1996, he has attended almost every inauguration period in Latin American countries. He knows very well all the politicians in Latin America because he's been the only one who has been present in many countries. Together with Pablo, we had the opportunity to travel with Crown Prince Felipe along these years to many inaugurations and he had the ideas and the memory of things that we didn't know and that even the politicians in the country didn't remember because he had been four previous presidents at that time and he remembered the talks and the problems that the country faced at that time. And he asked, well, how did you solve this problem? Oh, I didn't remember or I didn't know so. So he's really very active. He knows the social community because during these trips to Latin America, he always had a lunch with a group of representatives of the different parts of each society so he knows most of the persons in the cultural sector, in the economy that were his age and they all of them remember very well their conversations with now King Felipe. So he's a person that is extremely well prepared. He's eager to enhance the relationship of Spain with Latin American countries. He knows very well the region and he's also very well known. So I think that we have a bright, brilliant future with King Felipe. Great. And with that, I want to thank Secretary Garcia for coming and speaking here at CSIS at the America's Program. I want to thank you for choosing us. I hope that it was a stimulating session. I think it was excellent. So can you join me in a round of applause?