The Generalitat already has foreign delegations to cover almost all of America and Europe and part of Africa. The two great wastelands for the Government continue to be Asia and Oceania. But for the first of these two continents, it already has a center in Seoul since yesterday. In this delegation, Pere Aragonès and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Meritxell Serret, have paid special attention to it, not only because it is the first in Asian territory, but because Catalonia maintains a close and long relationship with economic and institutional actors in South Korea South that required reaffirmation in the form of headquarters.
The increase in delegations from before that fell with the application of article 155 of the Constitution in the first half of 2018 is remarkable. Ernest Maragall, as councillor, reactivated six practically at once without being able to avoid the controversy with the Minister of Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell at the end of that same year. The delegations of Germany, the United Kingdom and Ireland, Italy, the USA, France and Switzerland were back up and running all at once.
Raül Romeva, as the first foreign affairs minister, had nine delegations. In 155 he razed them all, except for Brussels. Today, with Serret at the helm, there are already 21 covering 72 countries. It includes the Japanese one, which is in the creation phase and which the Government hopes will be fully operational by 2024.
In addition, yesterday in Seoul the president of the Generalitat announced that he is studying the creation of two more delegations in Asia: in the Indian subcontinent and in Southeast Asia.
The inauguration of the delegation in South Korea was attended by the Spanish ambassador, Guillermo Kirkpatrick. "Welcome, ambassador", said Serret during his speech, only to brag after two minutes about the reactivation of delegations and the launch of new ones. "We are coming from article 155 and its application" to try to "dismantle the external structure of the Generalitat", stressed the minister. "Not only have they not been dismantled, but we have recovered and are stronger than ever, we have more institutional presence than ever", added the Catalan leader.
Two hours earlier Aragonès met privately with another ambassador. This time with the European Union in South Korea, María Castillo Fernández.
In South Korea, the Catalan delegate is Jaeyeok Yoon Kang, who has set himself the goal of promoting bilateral relations and "economic, social and cultural internationalization" that reinforce the path traveled so far. In 1983 Barcelona and Busán signed a twinning letter; in 1988 the South Korean consulate was inaugurated in the Catalan capital. The most important to date is perhaps the close collaboration between the Gyeonggi region and Catalonia. It has lasted since 1999 and today Pere Aragonès and the governor of the region, Kim Dong-yeon – former minister of Coordination and Policies of the Korean government (2013-2014) and former deputy prime minister and head of Economy and Finance (2017-2018)–, they committed to Suwon to sign a new deal in 2024 for another four years.
The objective for the new period will be to promote the exchange of knowledge in environmental matters, the technological sector and video games. In this sense, it should be noted that the Government promotes an alliance between regional governments in matters of "emerging and disruptive technologies". Gyeonggi will be added to Catalonia, Flanders (Belgium), Hessen (Germany), Scotland (United Kingdom), Quebec (Canada), and the province of Buenos Aires (Argentina).
