Spain holds the Presidency of the European Union in the second half of 2023, and as Spain’s Culture Minister, Miquel Iceta participated in the G-20 meeting of Culture Ministers in Varanasi on August 26. Speaking to The Hindu, Mr. Iceta described India as a “cultural superpower” and expressed concern about trafficking of cultural artefacts and destruction of heritage in Ukraine. Excerpts:
What is your primary focus during your India tour?
Indian cultural heritage is world cultural heritage. A damage to cultural heritage of any country is damage to cultural heritage of humanity. When illegal trafficking happens or when pieces of cultural heritage of a country arrive illegally in another country, that also goes against our interest because everyone loses with that. So when a country loses a part of its heritage, it is us who lose it also. We feel that legal framework of UN and UNESCO and treaties regarding that are very important for us because we are all affected when cultural items are illegally trafficked. We feel Spain and India are far away from each other who should know more about each other and from the cultural point of view there are many things to do.
What are your expectations from G-20?
Cultural heritage, the fight against illegal trafficking, and promotion of creative and cultural industries are on the table. We would like to stress following the Mondiacult declaration of 2022 that culture is a public good and ‘world public’s good’.
What you think of the destruction of ancient churches and museums in Ukraine?
European Union and Spain are with Ukraine in this conflict. We have an agreement with Ukraine to restore the damaged heritage, buildings, public libraries, museums, theatres and we are working with them both under UNESCO framework and bilaterally. We think Russia must go back to its frontiers and leave Ukraine alone. We don’t know if an agreement on this will be possible when signing the final declaration of G-20 but that is our position and that is more important now as Spain is holding the Presidency of the European Union in the second semester of 2023. We can agree on what concerns the cultural heritage as it was seen in the Mondiacult declaration which expressed the need to preserving cultural heritage and helping countries that suffer under war.
Other countries like France and Germany are aggressively championing their interest in India. How far has Spain succeeded in that through its cultural arms?
We know that Spanish is the fastest growing foreign language in India. It is a trend that has begun recently but it is a very strong trend. In Latin America they speak Spanish and in the U.S. Spanish is the second language.
What is your response to a situation when culture is weaponised?
If you love culture, then you love your own and everyone else’s [culture]. That is why we argue that damaging cultural heritage of one country amounts to damaging cultural heritage of the humanity. Our way... is to make culture a ‘world public good’. Culture is a way to check nationalism because if one loves culture, then he doesn’t take a flag to aggress another [nation].
