Мигель Анхель Моратинос: Испан дипломаты және саяхатшысы

Spanish diplomat and politician

Miguel Ángel Moratinos Cuyaubé (born 8 June 1951) is a Spanish diplomat and politician, a member of the Socialist Workers' Party and was a member of Congress from 2004 to 2011, where he represented Córdoba. From 2004 to 2010, he served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of Spain. In 2018, he was appointed as United Nations Under Secretary General holding the position of High Representative for the Alliance of Civilizations and assumed the position on 7 January 2019.

Born in 1951, Moratinos graduated in Law and Political Sciences at the University Complutense in Madrid, and then in Diplomatic Studies at the Diplomatic School of Spain.

Working with Javier Solana, who was then Spanish foreign minister, Moratinos helped prepare the Euro Mediterranean dialogue launched in November 1995 in Barcelona.

Between 1996 and 2003, Moratinos was the European Union Special Representative for the Middle East, based in Cyprus and Brussels. In this capacity, he attended most meetings of EU foreign ministers. During his time in office, the European Union – which had already been the biggest financial contributor to the region – also became increasingly vocal about Israeli Palestinian relations.

In 2010, Moratinos was given a new mission as a special envoy trying to defuse a row between Israel and Egypt that threatened to derail, for the second time, a summit of the Union for the Mediterranean. Since 2011, Moratinos has been teaching at Sciences Po Paris. Also in 2011, he was nominated by the Spanish government as a candidate for the position of director general of FAO; as part of his election campaign, he visited 90 countries. However, on June 26 he lost to Brazilian José Graziano da Silva. He received 88 votes out of 180 cast in the second round, while Graziano da Silva won 92. In mid 2012, Moratinos was among the candidates at the United Nations for a possible replacement of Kofi Annan as UN Arab League Joint Special Envoy for Syria. From 2012 to 2013, Moratinos was a member of the High Level Advisory Council of the President of the 67th Session of the United Nations General Assembly, Serbia's then foreign minister Vuk Jeremić. Following consultations, United Nations Secretary General António Guterres appointed Moratinos as his High Representative for the Alliance of Civilizations in 2018, succeeding Nassir Abdulaziz Al Nasser.