Trip by President of the Government to United States of America

With his agenda mainly centred on the United Nations headquarters on Tuesday, 20 December, President of the Government Rajoy will chair a Security Council open debate on people trafficking in conflict situations, a similar debate to the one held in October 2015 on women, peace and security, at which Resolution 1325, the benchmark on this issue, was approved.

The initiative to hold a debate on this matter derives from a proven reality, that conflicts increase the risk of people trafficking taking place, which armed groups such as DAESH and Boko Haram or criminal gangs use as a weapon of war and the financing thereof. This principally, but not exclusively, affects women and girls, as well as camps for refugees and the internally displaced, which are also a target for traffickers.

Before this debate, the President of the Government will award decorations to the United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, to his wife, to the Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations and to his Chief of Staff.

Previously, on the morning of Monday, 19 December, the President of the Government will hold a joint work meeting with the Spanish Ambassadors to the United States, to the United Nations and to the Organization of American States, with the aim of reviewing and hearing first hand their reflections on the challenges that our foreign policy must tackle in three areas: the outlook for the new Trump administration - bilateral relations, relations with the EU, with NATO and the main international political dossiers; the role of Spain in the United Nations system after stepping down from the Security Council; and the present and future of Latin America.

Finally, on the afternoon of Tuesday, 20 December, the President of the Government will visit the headquarters of the Cervantes Institute in New York, where he will inaugurate the exhibition entitled "The Visual Universe of Jorge Luis Borges", at which, on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of his death, a group of Argentinean artists will reflect on the relationship between the writer and the visual arts.

The exhibition is centred around the importance of the thoughts of Jorge Luis Borges on the visual arts, which are described in some of his writings, being one of the lesser known aspects of his work. This is made up of 25 works on different artistic disciplines, including photography, sculpture, drawing, installations and books, by authors such as Sara Facio, Gabriela Aberastury, Gabriel Barna, Norma Bessouet, Mariano Cornejo and Ezequiel Díaz Ortiz