The Council of Ministers has given the green light this Tuesday to the appointment of the new ambassadors of Spain in Angola, the Philippines, Madagascar, and South Sudan, at the proposal of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, European Union, and Cooperation.
The current ambassador in Manila, Miguel Utray Delgado (Sevilla, 1961), has been appointed as the new diplomatic representative in Angola.
Utray Delgado, a graduate in History from the Complutense University of Madrid and a career diplomat since 1990, has held various positions of responsibility, including that of director of International Relations at the Cervantes Institute in Madrid in 2022. He was also chief of Protocol for President José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero and, between 1999 and 2001, deputy director of the Cabinet of the president of the Higher Sports Council.
In the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he has performed various functions, such as advisor in the Technical Cabinet of the Undersecretary (2005), deputy general director of Cultural and Scientific Programs and Agreements in the State Secretariat for International Cooperation and Ibero-America (2001-2003), attached to the Directorate at the International Foundation and for Ibero-America of Public Administration and Policies (FIIAPP), and head of Service for North Africa in the General Directorate of Foreign Policy for Africa and the Middle East (1990-1993).
Abroad, he has been ambassador in the Philippines, Micronesia, Palau, and the Marshall Islands. Previously, he worked as second-in-command in Tegucigalpa (1993), counselor in Ankara (1996), consul general in Melbourne (2006) and Edinburgh (2012), as well as cultural and scientific counselor in Mexico in 2017.
For his part, diplomat Xavier Martí Martí will assume the Embassy of Spain in the Philippines in place of Utray. Born in Ulldecona (Tarragona) in 1980, he holds a degree in Political Science and Administration from the Autonomous University of Barcelona and a Master's in East Asian Studies from the Open University of Catalonia.
From August 2024 until his appointment, he has been the undersecretary of Foreign Affairs, European Union, and Cooperation. In addition, he has served as general director of Spaniards Abroad and Consular Affairs (2022-2024) and as general director for Ibero-America and the Caribbean (2021-2022), as well as director of the cabinets of the Secretary of State for International Cooperation (2020-2021) and of the Undersecretary of Foreign Affairs, European Union, and Cooperation (2018-2020).
In the external sphere, he was Deputy Chief of the Embassy of Spain in Kenya and Deputy Permanent Representative to UN-Habitat (2017-2018), and Deputy Consul at the Consulates General of Spain in São Paulo (2014-2017) and Lima (2010-2014).
Appointments in Madagascar and South Sudan
The new ambassador in Madagascar will be José Manuel Pascual García (Zamora, 1971), who has been serving as ambassador in South Africa and Comoros since 2025, and since 2026 also in Mauritius and Lesotho.
Career diplomat and graduate in Law from the University of Salamanca, during the Spanish Presidency of the EU in 2002 he worked in the General Secretariat of European Affairs and later as deputy to the Director General of the Internal Market.
Between 2012 and 2013 he was an advisor to the State Secretariat for Foreign Affairs and, between 2013 and 2016, Chief of Staff of the Presidency of the Constitutional Court.
During the Spanish Presidency of the EU in 2023, he chaired in Brussels the Working Group on the Law of the Sea when the ratification of the BBNJ Treaty was achieved. He also participated in the United Nations in the negotiations for the extension of the continental shelf of Galicia.
Abroad, he has served as counselor at the Embassy of Spain in Portugal (2007-2012) and as deputy chief in Libya (2004-2007), Brazil (2016-2020), and South Africa (2020-2023).
Finally, Daniel Losada Millar has been appointed ambassador to South Sudan. A graduate in Law and in Business Administration and Management (ICADE), he belongs to the diplomatic career and has completed the HEAT Course of the Civil Guard and the Leadership Program for Public Management at IESE.
Since August 2026, he is also the ambassador of Spain in the Republic of Sudan and in Eritrea. In addition, he has been special envoy for Sudan, first secretary in Mexico, deputy chief in Baghdad, and counselor in Kabul.
In the central services of the Ministry, he has held the positions of director of the Cabinet of the Secretary of State for Ibero-America and the Caribbean and Spanish in the World, advisory member in the same unit, and technical counselor in the minister's cabinet.