The Second Iberoamerican and Iberophony Forum organized by the Iberoamerican University Foundation (FUNIBER), with the support of the Academy of Diplomacy of the Kingdom of Spain (Academia de la Diplomacia del Reino de España), the Ibero-American Association of Communication (Asociación Iberoamericana de la Comunicación, ASICOM), and the Gustavo Bueno Foundation (Fundación Gustavo Bueno, FGB), has successfully concluded at the University of Oviedo.
Within the framework of this second forum, the Director of Institutional Relations and the FUNIBER Chair of Ibero-American Studies and Iberophony and professor at the Universidad Europea del Atlántico (European University of the Atlantic, UNEATLANTICO), Dr. F. Álvaro Durántez Prados, has presented the current state of the Multinational Space of Spanish- and Portuguese-Language Countries. This space, known as the “pan-Iberian space” or Iberophonic space, is a conglomerate that brings together nearly 900 million people and more than 30 countries from all continents.
The forum has focused on highlighting the substantive affinity between the two main Iberian languages, Spanish, and Portuguese, which are the only major international languages that are broadly mutually intelligible. This pan-Iberian space is the result of the sum of the Ibero-American Community of Nations (Comunidad Iberoamericana de Naciones) and the Community of Portuguese Language Countries, thus representing the first geolinguistic block in the world.
In recent years, concrete progress has been made in the articulation of this space, which has contributed to raising the visibility and international influence of Ibero-American countries. In addition, horizontal and triangular cooperation has been fostered between States in the Americas, Europe, Africa, and Asia, seeking to balance the homogenizing aspects and worldviews of today’s globalization.
The Second Iberoamerican and Iberophony Forum was a crucial opportunity for official bodies to jointly address this challenge, with a vision of the future. It has been a call to face a challenge that benefits all Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking peoples in the world, as well as the international community as a whole.
The conference of the Ambassador of the League of Arab States to the Kingdom of Spain, Malek Twal, highlighted the good relations that Arab countries have maintained with Spain, declaring that diplomacy “is the art of managing international relations with negotiation and dialogue,” emphasizing the need to work for the construction of peace, to cease armed conflicts.
Afterwards, a round table was held to discuss “The importance of diplomacy in international relations,” with the participation of the Angolan ambassador, Alfredo Dombe; the director of Institutional Relations of FUNIBER and professor of UNEATLANTICO, Dr. Durántez; the director of the FGB, Gustavo Bueno; the consul general of Uruguay in Spain, Ramiro Rodríguez Bausero; the vice-rector of Institutional Relations of the Universidad de Oviedo, Humberto Rodríguez; the president of the Academia de la Diplomacia, Santiago Velo de Antelo; and the vice-president of ASICOM, Laura Galguera. During the meeting, the vice-rector of Institutional Relations of the University of Oviedo emphasized the importance of “expanding cooperation between countries that share similar cultural roots and the same language.”
The roundtable culminated with the idea of strengthening the Iberophony space, given its importance in the geopolitical and international cooperation framework.