President Gabriel Boric, on tour in Europe, has made a “necessary call to order” to the Chilean ambassador in Spain, Javier Velasco, who on Wednesday tried at an event in Madrid to seduce the Spanish defense sector in the face of the deterioration of relations of Chile with Israel over the conflict in Gaza, as EL PAÍS revealed. Through its Minister of Foreign Affairs who accompanied the president at his press conference from Sweden, Alberto Van Klaveren, the Chilean Government has assured that the Foreign Ministry made contact with Velasco and requested a report “to account for what he exactly what he said, from the context in which he said it, to know his version before taking any measure,” said the chancellor. “I am asking you for explanations of the case,” explained Van Klaveren, who stated that if the ambassador publicly emphasized the key role of Spain as the central axis of investment in the defense sector in light of the position that Chile has adopted towards Israel over the war, As this newspaper reported and has been widely reported in the Chilean press, Velasco “has exceeded his powers.”
On Wednesday, Velasco participated in an event about Brand Management in Complex Environments in Madrid. In this forum he spoke about corporate responsibility in the face of the geopolitical context, which is no longer something that companies can ignore in the face of global situations such as the health crisis, the war in Ukraine, and now, the continuation of the war conflict in the Gaza Strip. . “We live in a delicate global situation, we are in the process of so-called selective deglobalization, and it is increasingly important to quantify the reputational drive of people in the market,” said Velasco. “It is an opportunity for other partners,” said the ambassador, after the Boric Government adopted strong measures against Israel, which includes its exclusion of Israeli companies from the International Air and Space Fair (FIDAE), which is held every two years in Santiago de Chile, one of the most important events in the defense sector in Latin America.
The Chilean ambassador recognized on Wednesday the importance of the Israeli industry in Chilean military spending, from which derives the need to find new partners. “It has been very hard for us to have to ask a country to refrain from attending a fair where so many relationships are woven,” Ambassador Velasco confessed about the decision made regarding FIDAE, highlighting the new weight of the Spanish sector in Chile.
The splinters of this new episode starring the diplomatic representative have also reached the Chilean Congress. The president of the Defense commission of the Chilean Senate, Pedro Araya, of the ruling PPD party, plans to summon the ministers of Defense and Foreign Affairs – Maya Fernández and Van Klaveren, respectively – for this new setback, the representative of Santiago in Madrid. The socialist Gabriel Gaspar, with a long career in Defense and Foreign Relations, declares himself surprised by this new incident. “I am surprised by Velasco’s statements, because the entire issue of weapons acquisitions in Chile corresponds to planning that is part of defense policy and it is up to the current Ministry of Defense to clarify this situation,” he assures EL PAÍS.
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