The Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation, José Manuel Albares, has confirmed that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation has called a meeting with the Spanish ambassador in the country, Marcos Gómez, and has trusted that Moscow will not decide the expulsion of the ambassador to the extent that, as he has recalled, Spain has not done so.
In any case, the head of Spanish diplomacy expects a reciprocal measure to the one taken by his ministry when he expelled 27 Russian diplomats and diplomatic personnel. For the moment, the French ambassador, Pierre Lévy, and the Italian, Giorgio Starace, have already passed through the Russian Foreign Ministry, to whom Lavrov has communicated the expulsion of 34 French and 24 Italian diplomats. The measures respond to the expulsion of 41 Russian diplomats from Paris and 30 more from Rome.
In the corridors of the Congress of Deputies, Albares pointed out that the Foreign Ministry led by his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov summoned the Spanish ambassador at one in the afternoon, together with the ambassadors of other European countries (France and Italy). “We don’t know why, but we imagined it and it’s a call we expected”, said Albares.
The head of Diplomacy has recalled that Spain has not expelled the Russian ambassador, Yuri Korchagin, and has added that at this time he rules out doing so. “But we have to wait”, he has placed.
The Foreign Minister has also pointed out that when Spain announced the expulsion of the 27 Russian diplomats and diplomatic personnel, he already advanced that in these situations there will be a symmetrical or almost symmetrical reciprocity, which, in his opinion, justifies that they were waiting for this call .
The minister has stressed regarding this diplomatic response, that the Russian authorities “have done it with all European countries and today, as I say, it is Spain and some other European countries.” And he has added that, in all cases so far, “keeping the ambassadors.”
On April 5, the government agreed to expel 25 diplomats and staff from the Russian embassy in Spain, considering that they represented “a threat to the security of our country” and as a sign of rejection of the actions of Russian troops in Ukraine.
Already then, the spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zajarova, pointed out that “all decisions of this type will have a corresponding response.” Since then, a diplomatic response from Russia has been expected. In fact, in a recent parliamentary response, the Government had indicated that it was “aware” of the possibility of the expulsion of diplomatic personnel and assured that “it is prepared for such an eventuality, in addition to maintaining close contact and coordination with its European partners”.
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