The Minister for Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation, José Manuel Albares, has intensified his efforts over the last eighteen months to promote the use of Spanish in multilateral diplomacy. Proof of this is the setting up of two new Groups of Friends of Spanish (GAE) in The Hague and in the OECD, which are fundamental to act in a concerted manner in the effort to consolidate Spanish as a benchmark language in the international legal sphere and in the world economy.
The international promotion of Spanish is a strategic axis of Spain's foreign action, and its use in multilateral diplomacy is a key objective that is also shared by the rest of the countries that have Spanish as an official language.
In this regard, Ibero-America also has the privilege of two global languages, Spanish and Portuguese - in addition to other co-official and native languages - so reinforcing this legacy is one of the priorities and will be present, in a transversal manner, in all the actions linked to the Ibero-American Summit in Madrid in 2026.
Spanish in the world
With more than 500 million native speakers - the world's second mother tongue - Spanish is a global language, an official language on three continents - Europe, America and Africa - and an official and working language of the United Nations.
"The Government is firmly committed to Spanish as a key asset of our foreign policy. That is why, four years ago, we created the Directorate General for Spanish in the World," recalled Albares. As he insisted, "in such a complex international context where multilateralism and dialogue are more necessary than ever, Spanish is a tool for diplomacy and cooperation, for progress and peace."
New Groups of Friends of Spanish
The latest step in this direction is the creation of the Group of Friends of Spanish in the OECD, which came into being on 22 July, when the permanent delegates of the Spanish-speaking member states (Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Spain and Mexico) presented the Group's Charter to the Secretary General, Mathias Corman.
The delegates thus reaffirmed their joint commitment to promoting the use and dissemination of Spanish in the OECD, which, at Spain's request, will for the first time carry out an important technical study on the economic weight of Spanish on a global scale.
The GAE in The Hague is the result of an agreement between 17 Spanish-speaking countries to promote the use of Spanish in international organisations based in the Dutch city. The GAE will work to repeat in the future successes such as the one achieved at the Hague Conference on Private International Law, where Spanish has been an official working language since July 2024, or the recognition of Spanish as the authentic language of the International Treaty to establish the Claims Commission for Ukraine (CRU), last April.
In addition to the aforementioned Groups of Friends of Spanish in The Hague, OECD and OAS, similar groups already exist in the main UN headquarters (New York, Geneva, Vienna and Paris).
Spanish impetus
In the last eighteen months, Spain has signed 12 bilateral memoranda of understanding with Ibero-American countries for the promotion of Spanish in the diplomatic sphere and in international organisations. These memoranda vindicate the global character of Spanish and its status as an official language of the United Nations, promoting the strengthening of the different Groups of Friends of Spanish.
In this context, it is worth highlighting the importance of Spain's impetus both in intensifying the activity of the existing Groups of Friends of Spanish and in the creation of new groups, which are essential for the development of concerted action with Spanish-speaking countries in the multilateral sphere.
Consequently, last March, the so-called "Circulo Ñ" of the Organization of American States (OAS), created last year, led to a declaration of support from the Permanent Council of this organisation for the campaign to make Spanish official at the International Court of Justice. At the recent OAS General Assembly in Antigua and Barbuda in June, Círculo Ñ has also achieved the creation of the International Spanish Language Week, to be held every year in April.
Non official translation
Facade of the headquarters of the Cervantes Institute in Madrid