Ambassador Ion de la Riva, Counsellor for the Embassy of Spain in Rome, on "Cultural Diplomacy"

Graduated in Law and in Business Economics, he entered the Spanish Diplomatic Service in 1983. He was Director and Executive Advisor to the Cabinet of the Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, and member of the Advisory Committee and Director of the Cabinet of the Secretary of State for International Cooperation and for Ibero-America. In 1991 he founded “Casa America” and he was appointed Director of the American Tribune of the “Casa de America” Consortium. He also held the position of Cultural and Cooperation Counselor at the Embassy of Spain in Cuba, where he founded the Cultural Center of Spain. In 2001, he founded “Casa Asia”, a public consortium for which he was Managing Director until June 2007. From May 2004 to June 2007 he was Ambassador-at-Large for the Asia and Pacific Plan, and until November 2010 he held the position of Ambassador of Spain in India. From November 2010 to March 2012 he was Ambassador of Spain at the Permanent Mission of Spain to the UNESCO in Paris. He has been the Director of FIND from 2012 to 2014. He is now the Cultural Counsellor at the Embassy of Spain in Rome.

In a recent talk at the Congress of Cultural Journalism in Santander, he advocated for cultural diplomacy to go beyond national branding and marketing strategies. In fact, the adoption of a critical perspective in promoting culture would well support and integrate a country’s foreign policy through a soft diplomacy approach, while contributing to strengthen cultural identity, diversity and cohesion at home.