西班牙外交政策係聚焦於歐洲、地中海及伊比利美洲三大區域。自西班牙於1980年代先後加入北大西洋公約組織及歐洲共同體以降，歐洲業成為其外交政策主軸；另一方面，基於與伊比利美洲各國在歷史及文化的淵源，西班牙歷任總理均對鞏固及發展與該區域關係不遺餘力，同時並扮演歐洲聯盟與拉丁美洲間橋樑之角色，盼藉以提昇其國際地位。 西班牙與伊比利美洲各國制度化之合作關係肇始於1991年召開之「伊比利美洲國家元首高峰會」，該峰會每年均固定召開，業成為會員國間最重要之溝通管道。另在西班牙居間協調下，「歐洲聯盟－拉丁美洲暨加勒比海高峰會」亦於1999年召開；與會各國除討論民主、人權、社會發展及環保議題外，更盼能藉由逐步建構「歐盟－拉丁美洲聯繫協定」以獲致雙贏。 本文另一討論重點在於拉丁美洲各國對西班牙外交政策之態度。儘管拉丁美洲各國當前雖已逐漸擺脫「迷失年代」之桎梏，該區域未臻成熟之民主體制及懸而未決之貧富不均問題在在提供新興左派快速崛起之契機。這群拉美新興左派政權以委內瑞拉總統查維斯為首，在國際社會聯合反對美國單邊霸權主義，並對西班牙橫跨歐洲及拉丁美洲之橋樑角色造成重大影響。 Spain’s foreign policy focuses its attention on three aspects : Europe, Mediterranean and Iberoamerica. After participating in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization ( NATO ) and European Community ( EC ) in 1980s, Spain regards European Policy as the priority issue, because of its historical and cultural connections with the Ibero-American countries. Every Spanish prime minister spares no effort to consolidate and develop relationship with this region. At the same time, Spain difines itself as the bridge between the European Union ( EU ) and the Latin-American countries in order to elevate its international status. The institutional cooperation between Spain and the Ibero-American countries began with the first celebration of Ibero-American Summit in 1991. The Summit is convened annually and has become the most important channel between its member states. Moreover, the first EU-Latin America and the Carribean Summit is convoked in 1999 due to the coordination of Spain. The participants not only discuss democracy, human rights, social development and environmental protection issues, but also hope to build up gradually “Association Agreements European Union – Latin America” in order to create a win-win situation. Another keypoint of this article is discussing the attitude of Latin-American countries toward Spain’s foreign policy. Although the Latin-American countries have gradually broken away from the “lost decade”, immature democracy and the gap between rich and poor is still widening in this region, which provides opportunity for the abrupt rise of “neo-left”. The Latin American neo-left regimes, under the leadership of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, fights against the U.S. unilateral hegemony in the international community and have a great influence over Spain’s role as the bridge between Europe and Latin America.
