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A dozen Dominicans wait on the side of the road holding flags of their country. Traffic is escorted by the flag of Ibero-American countries. At the Las Americas International Airport in Santo Domingo, the leaders representing the 22 countries attending the XXVIII Ibero-American Summit, the first 100% face-to-face after the Covid pandemic, land. Felipe VI landed this Thursday; Pedro Sánchez does so this Friday from Brussels, after participating in the European Council. An appointment that despite being held in Santo Domingo looks at Ukraine and China.

War flies over the appointment. Not only because the consequences of the Russian invasion have effects worldwide, but because in the final documents approved at this meeting there will be an allusion to the war in Ukraine, which generates different positions among Ibero-American countries. Spain will bring up the issue of Ukraine not only at the summit itself, but on the margins of it, as it will be one of the issues that Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares takes in his meetings with Ibero-American foreign ministers. It would be the first time that there would be a joint pronouncement of the Ibero-American countries on the conflict, since these differences have not led to any so far.

The final declaration of this summit has been debated for months, with Ukraine being one of the elements to be defined. Spain has put forward various proposals. In any case, the Spanish position, as defined by Minister Albares in a meeting with journalists, is to continue supporting Ukraine because "we not only defend the territorial integrity of the sovereignty of a country, but we also defend the most elementary principles of the United Nations Charter". The Spanish Government begins to introduce more assiduously in its speech, and on the verge of assuming the Rotary presidency of the EU, the concept of "just peace" as a desire and expectation. "A peace within the principles of the Charter of the United Nations".

And the conflict in Ukraine is also associated with the gaze on China. Not only because in a few days Pedro Sánchez will make an official visit to Beijing on March 30 and 31 but because one of the great absences of this Ibero-American Summit in Santo Domingo will be Lula da Silva. The Brazilian president is not going to attend because he is making a state visit to China from March 26 to 31. That is, he moves to the Asian giant before Pedro Sánchez. "China has a key role in its possible mediation in the war in Ukraine," they say from the Spanish government.

Lula's absence adds to that of other presidents such as Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador; or the leaders of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, and Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega. The president of Peru, Dina Boluarte, does not attend either, and in her place attends the country's chancellor, Ana Cecilia Gervasi. There is still the question of whether Nicolás Maduro will attend, whose presence could serve to undertake his purpose of whitewashing his figure, a task that the Venezuelan president already began at the climate summit in Egypt, in November 2022, with a resounding and striking greeting with the president of France, Emmanuel Macron.

Faced with absences as notable as those of Lula or López Obrador, Minister Albares who wanted to emphasize that "absences will not be any, empty chairs there will be none" but that "all countries will be represented at a very high level," he defended.

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  • Ukraine
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  • Pedro Sanchez
  • Andrés Manuel López Obrador
  • UN
  • Nicolas Maduro
  • Emmanuel Macron
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  • Felipe VI
  • Covid 19