Jun
On Wednesday June 1st a reception was held in the Ambassador's residence on the occasion of the Spanish Armed Forces Day 2016. The event was chaired by the Ambassador Ramon Gil-Casares together with the Defense Attaché, General Angel Valcárcel.
After the audition of the national anthems of the United States and Spain, the Ambassador gave a short greeting and welcome address to the authorities and guests representing the American society and the diplomatic community, particularly in the area of defense, as well as the Spanish colony in the Nation´s Capital.
The Defence Attaché referred to the determined commitment of the Spanish Armed Forces in protecting international peace and security, highlighting the effort which Spain has been undertaking for many years now to contribute in multiple operations abroad under United Nations, NATO or European Union leadership or command.
It is to be mentioned that among the attendees were the Captain, a group of crewmembers and cadets and the band of the Spanish Navy training ship “Juan Sebastián de Elcano”, which on these days is docked at Baltimore as an scale in her 87th instruction cruise.
2016 SPANISH ARMED FORCES DAY ADDRESS
June 1st, Washington D.C.
Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, dear families, colleagues and friends. As my Ambassador, I also want to thank all of you for coming today to celebrate the Spanish Armed Forces Day.
As I did in the past, please allow me to welcome our brother countries in Spanish, the second most spo-ken native language in the world, after the Chinese mandarin. Queridos amigos y compañeros de países hermanos, sabéis que me encanta utilizar nuestra rica lengua para, en nombre del Embajador, daros la bienvenida a esta casa que, sabéis, es la vuestra.
Quiero agradecer también la presencia de nuestro Buque Escuela Juan Sebastian Elcano, cuyo Coman-dante ha tenido la generosidad de venir acompañado con una parte de su dotación y con su unidad de música para dar mayor realce al acto.
This is the third time I commemorate with you our military Day here in Washington DC, which means that it will be the last one for me. A lot of things happened during this time, but don’t worry I am not planning to mention all of them because I don’t want to be “chided” once more by my Ambassador and by my own staff for speaking too much.
But if there is something I really want to highlight today is our cooperation with the United States, which has dramatically improved during these past three years by, among other things, hosting four US Navy destroyers ships at Rota naval base to provide European missile defense, and by increasing the number of US Marines troops at Morón Air Base to carry out missions in Africa and the Middle East. Needless to say, as the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff, General Selva, told me when he was the Commander of USTRANSCOM, how important both locations, Rota and Morón, are to provide strategic logistic sup-port to the United States.
Today, because the world has changed, there are in Spain about 6.000 US military and civilian people to counter with us the threats on the so called southern flank, in order to keep a Europe that is whole and free and at peace. Just as an example of this level of confidence and understanding, I’m more than happy to say that last year we doubled the number of bilateral training and exercises with all US military ser-vices.
It is time now to look for yet more new opportunities to work together. I think there is still room to strengthen our collaboration in areas like intelligence sharing, which is essential to build a trust between two countries that share the common goal of providing peace and stability around the world, or in cyber defense, once our Spanish Cyber Command has reached its full operational capability. Industrial and technology cooperation is another key area where we need to evolve. As a matter of fact, my staff is organizing a third US-Spain Industry Day, and working hard now to promote close relationship between the research labs that our respective military services are so proud of.
Once our economy has started to recover my Minister of Defense has announced his willingness to launch three new major programs: 8x8 armored vehicle for our Army, new frigates to be built by the Spanish company Navantia for our Navy, and MQ-9 Reaper drones to be delivered by the American com-pany General Atomics for our Air Force.
I know we are far from reaching the 2% GDP requested by NATO, but people are more important, much more important, than money. It’s our people, our brave people who, in spite of all the financial restraints they face, are deeply engaged in twenty different military operations, in twelve countries, in three con-tinents and in four maritime zones, demonstrating day by day how eager we are to fulfill our obligations and commitments, either with the Alliance, the European Union, the United Nations or the United States of America.
Dear colleagues, this year I don´t want to finish without my deepest appreciation to both the Department of Defense and the community of Defense Attachés for their assistance in providing me with all I needed to better serve my Armed Forces in this great country. It has been an honor to serve as a humble crew member of our three main “ships”: friendship, partnership and comradeship. Their kindness and gener-osity will remain with me forever.
And now, following our military tradition, before we partake of our “tapas”, sponsored by Airbus, Navan-tia, UTI and Hisdesat, and prepared by the Spanish restaurant La Taberna del Alabardero, I kindly request from all of you, on behalf of our Minister of Defense and with the permission of my Ambassador, to join me in a toast to our first soldier, to His Majesty the King of Spain. ¡POR EL REY!
Washington DC, 06/01/2016
