GROWING DIPLOMATIC TIES
Foreign Minister Eli Cohen met with newly appointed Paraguayan President Santiago Pena on Tuesday, just hours after his inauguration ceremony. During the meeting they decided that Paraguay will transfer its embassy to Jerusalem later this year.
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Additionally, they agreed Israel would reopen its embassy in Asunción, the capital of Paraguay.
Foreign Minister Cohen invited Pena to visit Israel for the embassy’s inauguration ceremony in Jerusalem; the president responded that he intends to visit the country later this year before the embassy’s official opening.
The Paraguayan embassy will be the fifth one to open in Jerusalem. "We continue to strengthen Jerusalem's international status as Israel’s capital,” Cohen said in a statement. “I invited Paraguayan President Santiago Pena to visit Israel for the inauguration of the Paraguayan embassy in Jerusalem.”
“The opening of the Paraguayan embassy in Jerusalem and the Israeli embassy in Asunción will reinforce Israel's regional and international standing as well as the important ties between the two countries. We’ll continue to bolster the historical connection with Latin American countries, which have stood by the side of Israel and the Jewish people," he added.
In May 2018, Paraguay moved its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, being the third embassy to be opened in the capital after the United States and Guatemala.
At the time, Paraguayan President Horacio Cartes, a supporter of Israel, came to Jerusalem to inaugurate the embassy in a special ceremony. He was also invited by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a year later to the annual torch-lighting ceremony on Mount Herzl.
Four months later, in September 2018, Paraguay's newly elected President Mario Abdo Benitez reversed his predecessor's decision and announced the Paraguayan embassy would return to Herzliya in order to maintain a more neutral approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Israel expressed its disagreement with the decision, and Netanyahu instructed to recall Israel's ambassador to Asunción and to close the Israeli embassy in the country, which has remained nonoperational since late 2018.