Catalonia is once again on the front line. This is the key idea behind the campaign 'Som al món' (We are in the world), presented this week, to explain that the Government of Catalonia currently has unprecedented institutional strength abroad and all the will and determination to play a leading role in the great global challenges.

The campaign was made public during the institutional visit of the President of the Government of Catalonia,Pere Aragonès i Garcia, and the Minister for Foreign Action and European Union, Meritxell Serret i Aleu, to the Republic of Korea, where the Government Delegation to South Korea was inaugurated in Seoul, the first on the Asian continent.

“Today we are launching a campaign to highlight all of the Catalan Government’s foreign policy, which positions Catalonia in the world”, said Minister Serret from South Korea. The campaign emphasises “the will of Catalan society to be present everywhere” and to “generate opportunities for development”.

Catalonia currently has 21 Government delegations abroad, covering 72 countries on all continents. In this respect, the Minister for Foreign Action and European Union said that “we are currently present in the world as never before”. She further added:“There is no other government that is not a state that has such a network of institutional representation”.

A network undergoing global expansion

Over the course of 2023, the network of delegations abroad has taken a qualitative leap forward. The Catalan Government made it a priority to consolidate delegations abroad and has seen this through: it has opened delegations in the Southern Cone (based in Buenos Aires) and in South Korea; it has appointed four new delegates (in Brazil, Andorra, Japan and the Andean States); it has increased the budget and staffing of strategic delegations, and it has also created new positions such as special envoys.

The 21 existing delegations cover all the countries of the European Union and the Americas, as well as North Africa and East Asia. The Catalan Government is already working on the expansion of its network of delegations abroad, which plans to advance the Government’s institutional presence in South Asia, Southeast Asia and East Africa. In fact, once the trip to South Korea is over, Serret will travel to Japan, where she will intensify institutional, economic and cultural contacts, accompanied by the Catalan Government delegate to Japan, Mònica Castellà i Pujadó.

In this respect, Minister Serret stressed that“we will continue to assert this foreign action, and not only will we not give up on it, but we will move forward with utmost determination”.

Institutional strength without precedent

The campaign consists mainly of a TV spot in which the protagonist, a young Catalan woman, travels through emblematic cities around the world, such as Paris, New York, Tokyo, Cairo, London, Bogotá and Marrakesh.

With the slogan “We are in the world”, it reviews the reasons why the Catalan Government has an institutional presence abroad; for example, “to work, to build, to share ideas, to provide solutions to global problems, to speak our own mind, to enter into a dialogue with all cultures,” among others.

Finally, the campaign concludes by saying that the Catalan Government is in the world “in 72 countries through a network that is constantly growing”, adding that this is “with unprecedented institutional strength”.

The campaign, which will be disseminated both in the media and on social media, also includes a series of visual pieces that capture its key messages: “Catalonia is once again on the front line. We are in 72 countries, with unprecedented institutional strength. To speak our own mind. To provide solutions. To lead the way.”