http://actualidad.terra.es/nacional/articulo/principe_asturias_aboga_fortalecimiento_relaciones_1124363.htm
The Prince pleads for the strengthening of the bilateral relations
A visit that next Friday, last day of his stay in the American capital, will take him to the White House as special guest of the president of the USA, George W. Bush, to the commemoration of the month of the Hispanic inheritance.
Don Felipe returned today to that it was his university, Georgetown, for two years, at the beginning of the nineties, as pupil of a course of ' Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service ', one of the most prestigious of the world in international relations.
Of this stay in Washington, the Prince of Asturias guards indelible recollections in his memory. ' The five-peseta coin I am employed at the library, the debates at class, the teamwork, the draft of works and his punctual delivery ... ', essential aspects of a university education that seeks to manage ' responsible and informed ' citizens.
In Georgetown, the inheritor of the Wreath spoke about the need of pressing links hard between Spain and The United States, something to what, in his opinion, it can contribute decisively a strengthening in the relations between university institutions of both countries.
In this prestigious university there exists from 1997 a Chair Prince of Asturias of Spanish Studies who, in the frame of the ' School of Foreign Service ', forms a part of a wide program to promote the Spanish culture in the academic world of Washington.
On the occasion of the visit of the Prince, the chair organized today an academic act in which the Hispanist and American historian Stanley G. Payne, on having thought loudly about the Spain of the 21st century, proved to be worried by this ' new republican movement ' that, from some sectors of the socialism and the ex-communists, made concrete, they support the second transition.
Payne, worried also by the fact that it never puts on end to the autonomic process, said in a posterior conversation with journalists that <a new republican experience in Spain would be 'disastrous'. ' The Republic would never be a solution for Spain ', there abounded this expert of our history.
Before an eminently academic hearing, the Prince of Asturias spoke about a Spain that, to the beginning of the 21st century, nothing has to see with that of beginning of the 80s.
' During this time - he stood out - Spain has got squarely into the modernity, with spectacular changes into the political thing, the economic thing and into the social thing. We are a loyal and active associate in the European Union and a world power of average type from the economic point of view '.
To the pupils and teachers of the University of Georgetown don Felipe remembered also the special relations of Spain with Latin America, in which, historically, the Spanish Wreath plays an out-standing role.
Sample of it is this trip of the Prince to Washington to know closely the reality of a community that already supreme more than forty million persons in the whole country. A forceful community that during this month - from September 14 until the next 15-th celebrates the Hispanic inheritance.
The president Bush will exercise of host on Friday in the White House forthwith that every year commemorates this inheritance, and in the one that will return to remember the important contribution to the development of The United States.
In a presidential declaration of last September 14, Bush was recognizing the contribution of the Hispanics ' to the strength and vitality ' of this nation, and their ' devotion for our country ' on having entered the armed forces. ' Nowadays - it was affirming-, the Americans of Hispanic ancestry serve in our armed forces with valor and honor, and their efforts are contributing that The United States is surer and to which the freedom comes to peoples about the world '.
The academic act presided by the Prince served in addition to present officially the rich bibliographical fund on Spain and its history that from now will be at the disposal of students and teachers in the library of Georgetown.
A few funds of dimension also European that will complement, according to don Felipe, the activities of the chair that takes his name and will contribute in a decisive way to a better knowledge of the reality in another Atlantic shore.
This night, in the Center of Convections of Washington, the Prince of Asturias will be present at the show of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute, one of the most important Hispanic organizations in The United States, whom will represent the most ample representation - near of two thousand persons - of this community.
In Georgetown, don Felipe was congratulated publicly on his new paternity, in next spring, and remembered that in his previous trip to Washington, last year, he could not be accompanied by his wife dona Letizia, pregnant woman at the time of the Infanta Leonor either.
' Assurance will come in the next visit ', was commented by him
The Prince coincided with his cousin Philippos of Greece
A girl in my Spanish class saw him walk by, and she reported that he was "muy guapo," but the event he attended wasn't open to students. It's a bit surreal to see pictures of him walking around campus, though!
