Where will the 2026 Conference of Ambassadors be held?

The 2026 Conference of Ambassadors is scheduled to take place in Madrid, ESP.

When is the 2026 Conference of Ambassadors scheduled?

The 2026 Conference of Ambassadors is scheduled to begin on January 8, 2026.

2026 Conference of Ambassadors

Name: 2026 Conference of Ambassadors
Start: 2026-01-08 00:00:00+00:00
End: 2026-01-08 00:00:00+00:00
Location: Madrid

Jan 8, 2026Madrid, SpainIn-person

Registration open

The 2026 Conference of Ambassadors is a pivotal diplomatic event convening in Madrid, Spain. This gathering serves as a crucial forum for high-level diplomatic representatives to engage in strategic discussions, review foreign policy objectives, and coordinate international efforts. The conference is designed to foster deeper understanding and collaboration among nations on pressing global issues.

Committees & topics

United Nations Programme for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women)
UN Women: Advancing Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women
United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC)
ECOSOC: Sovereign Debt, Development Finance, and Digital Public Infrastructure
Paris International Conference on Cambodia (PICC; Historical)
Paris International Conference on Cambodia (1989–1991, Historical)
United Nations General Assembly (UNGA)
United Nations General Assembly: Plenary of the World Body
International Maritime Organization (IMO)
International Maritime Organization: Decarbonization, Safety, and Freedom of Navigation
North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
North Atlantic Treaty Organization: Deterrence, Enlargement, and Out-of-Area Challenges
United Nations Security Council (UNSC)
UN Security Council: Sudan and Cyber Threats to Critical Infrastructure
United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA)
UN Environment Assembly: Plastics, Biodiversity, and the Triple Planetary Crisis

Why it matters

The Conference of Ambassadors holds significant importance as it brings together the heads of diplomatic missions from various countries. These representatives are at the forefront of implementing their nations' foreign policies and navigating complex international relations. Their collective insights and coordinated actions can shape global responses to challenges ranging from economic stability to regional conflicts.

Such a conference provides a unique opportunity for direct, high-level dialogue that can circumvent bureaucratic hurdles and accelerate diplomatic initiatives. It allows for a comprehensive review of past diplomatic achievements and a forward-looking discussion on emerging threats and opportunities. The outcomes of these discussions often inform national foreign policy adjustments and multilateral engagements, making it a critical event for understanding the trajectory of international diplomacy.

How to prepare

Delegates preparing for the 2026 Conference of Ambassadors should undertake a thorough review of their nation's current foreign policy priorities and assess how these align with the broader international agenda. A key aspect of preparation involves understanding the perspectives of other participating nations, which can be informed by examining their diplomatic histories and current geopolitical stances. This includes a careful consideration of potential areas of cooperation as well as points of divergence.

Effective participation will require delegates to be well-versed in the specific topics slated for discussion, which often encompass a wide array of global challenges. Utilizing frameworks such as "what-is-stakeholder-mapping" and "dynamic-analysis" can help in identifying key actors and understanding the intricate relationships that influence international outcomes. Furthermore, preparing detailed briefs on national positions and potential negotiation strategies, informed by lessons like "engagement-strategies," will be essential for contributing constructively to the conference's objectives.

Country perspectives

Where the most-relevant 4 countries stand on the core issues in play. Click through for the full country profile.

Spain

Host nation, facilitating dialogue and aiming to strengthen its diplomatic standing.

Role in topic

As the host country, ESP plays a central role in organizing the conference, setting the agenda, and providing the platform for international dialogue. Its diplomatic corps will be instrumental in guiding discussions and fostering consensus among the participating ambassadors.

United States

Key global player, likely to advocate for international cooperation on security and economic issues.

Role in topic

The USA, as a major global power, will likely use this forum to advance its foreign policy objectives, particularly concerning global security, economic partnerships, and human rights. Its delegation will seek to influence the direction of multilateral initiatives.

China

Emerging global leader, focusing on economic diplomacy and multilateralism.

Role in topic

CHN's delegation will likely emphasize its role in global economic development and advocate for a multipolar world order. Its participation will be crucial for discussions on trade, climate change, and regional stability, particularly in Asia.

India

Significant developing nation, promoting South-South cooperation and a balanced global order.

Role in topic

IND will likely highlight issues pertinent to developing nations, such as sustainable development, climate justice, and equitable global governance. Its delegation will aim to strengthen ties with various blocs and promote a more inclusive international system.

Topics & background

The background behind each topic and the actors that shape it.

United Nations Programme for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women)

UN Women: Advancing Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women

UN Women was established by General Assembly Resolution 64/289 in July 2010, consolidating four prior UN entities (DAW, INSTRAW, OSAGI, and UNIFEM) into a single composite body tasked with accelerating progress on gender equality. Its mandate draws on the 1979 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the 1995 Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, which set out twelve critical areas of concern ranging from poverty and education to armed conflict and political participation. UN Women supports the Commission on the Status of Women, coordinates UN system-wide gender mainstreaming, and operates programs in over 90 countries. Three decades after Beijing, progress has been uneven and, by several measures, has stalled or reversed. The 2024 SDG Gender Snapshot reported that at current rates of change, it would take roughly 137 years to lift all women and girls out of extreme poverty, and that legal protections against gender-based violence remain incomplete in much of the world. Recent backsliding — including restrictions on women's rights in Afghanistan following the Taliban's 2021 return to power, rollbacks of reproductive rights in several jurisdictions, and gendered impacts of conflicts in Sudan, Gaza, and Ukraine — has sharpened debates over enforcement and funding. Current agenda items include implementation of the Beijing+30 review, financing for gender equality amid contracting aid budgets, the gendered dimensions of climate change and digital transformation, and the situation of women and girls under regimes that institutionalize gender persecution. Debates persist over whether 'gender apartheid' should be codified as a crime under international law and how UN Women can more effectively coordinate with peacekeeping and humanitarian agencies under the Women, Peace and Security agenda (UNSCR 1325).

Key players

United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC)

ECOSOC: Sovereign Debt, Development Finance, and Digital Public Infrastructure

ECOSOC, established under the UN Charter in 1945 as one of six principal organs, coordinates the economic, social, and related work of fourteen UN specialized agencies, functional commissions, and regional commissions. It serves as the central platform for follow-up on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development through the annual High-Level Political Forum, and oversees the Financing for Development process — most recently advanced through the FfD4 conference in Sevilla in 2025. The Council's 2026 agenda is dominated by a deepening sovereign debt crisis in the Global South. According to UNCTAD, over 3.3 billion people now live in countries that spend more on debt service than on health or education. The G20 Common Framework for Debt Treatments, launched in 2020, has produced slow and uneven results, with cases such as Zambia and Ghana exposing coordination failures among Paris Club creditors, China, and private bondholders. African and Latin American states, supported by the UN Secretary-General's SDG Stimulus proposal, are pressing for a UN-led multilateral debt restructuring mechanism — a proposal long resisted by major creditor states and the IMF. In parallel, ECOSOC is operationalizing the Global Digital Compact adopted at the 2024 Summit of the Future, with particular attention to Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) — interoperable identity, payments, and data exchange systems — as an accelerator for SDG delivery. Disputes center on data governance, AI safeguards, and ensuring that DPI deployment does not entrench surveillance or exclude marginalized populations.

Key players

Paris International Conference on Cambodia (PICC; Historical)

Paris International Conference on Cambodia (1989–1991, Historical)

The Paris International Conference on Cambodia (PICC) convened in two phases — July–August 1989 and October 1991 — to negotiate an end to more than a decade of conflict in Cambodia. The crisis originated with the Khmer Rouge regime's genocidal rule from 1975 to 1979, during which an estimated 1.7 million Cambodians perished. Vietnam's December 1978 invasion ousted the Khmer Rouge and installed the People's Republic of Kampuchea under Heng Samrin, but the new government was denied the UN seat, which continued to be held by a coalition that included the Khmer Rouge. Throughout the 1980s, a Vietnamese-backed Phnom Penh government fought a guerrilla war against the Coalition Government of Democratic Kampuchea (CGDK), backed variously by China, ASEAN states, and the West. The first phase of the PICC in 1989 failed to produce agreement, primarily because of disputes over power-sharing and the role of the Khmer Rouge in any transitional arrangement. Momentum revived after the Permanent Five of the Security Council reached convergence in 1990 on a comprehensive settlement framework — facilitated by the end of the Cold War, Vietnam's troop withdrawal, and Sino-Soviet rapprochement. The Supreme National Council of Cambodia, chaired by Prince Norodom Sihanouk, was established as the unique legitimate body embodying Cambodian sovereignty during the transition. The second phase concluded on 23 October 1991 with the signing of the Paris Peace Agreements by nineteen states. The accords established the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) — one of the largest UN peacekeeping operations to that date — to administer the country, disarm factions, repatriate refugees, and organize the May 1993 elections. Delegates in this historical committee will navigate the unresolved questions of 1989–1991: the political status of the Khmer Rouge, Vietnamese withdrawal verification, the structure of transitional authority, and great-power guarantees of Cambodian neutrality.

Key players

United Nations General Assembly (UNGA)

United Nations General Assembly: Plenary of the World Body

The General Assembly is the UN's principal deliberative organ, established under Chapter IV of the 1945 Charter, with universal membership and one vote per state. Although its resolutions are generally non-binding, the UNGA's authority derives from its representativeness, its control over the UN budget, and its election of non-permanent Security Council members, ECOSOC, and (jointly with the UNSC) the Secretary-General and judges of the ICJ. The Uniting for Peace mechanism (Resolution 377A, 1950) allows the Assembly to act when the Security Council is paralyzed by a veto, a procedure invoked with renewed frequency in recent years over Ukraine and Gaza. The 2026 plenary agenda reflects a contested international order. Delegates will return to the implementation of the Pact for the Future, adopted at the September 2024 Summit of the Future, which set out commitments on sustainable development, peace and security reform, science and technology governance, youth, and global governance reform. Negotiations continue over Security Council reform — particularly the long-standing demands of the G4 (Brazil, Germany, India, Japan), the African Union's Ezulwini Consensus, and the Uniting for Consensus group — with little procedural breakthrough in sight. The Assembly also remains the principal forum for resolutions on Israel-Palestine, including the May 2024 resolution recommending Palestinian UN membership; on the Russian Federation's war in Ukraine; on nuclear disarmament; and on the climate emergency. Veto-initiative reform under Resolution 76/262 (2022) now requires the Assembly to meet within ten working days of any Security Council veto, increasing political costs on the P5 and elevating the UNGA's profile as a forum of last resort.

Key players

International Maritime Organization (IMO)

International Maritime Organization: Decarbonization, Safety, and Freedom of Navigation

The IMO, established by the 1948 Geneva Convention and operational since 1959, is the UN specialized agency responsible for the safety, security, and environmental performance of international shipping. It administers more than 50 treaties, including SOLAS (Safety of Life at Sea), MARPOL (marine pollution prevention), STCW (seafarer training), and the UNCLOS-linked regime for navigation rights. With shipping carrying roughly 80% of global trade by volume, IMO standards have outsized economic and environmental impact. The Organization's defining current task is decarbonization. In July 2023 the IMO adopted a Revised GHG Strategy committing the sector to net-zero emissions 'by or around 2050,' with indicative checkpoints of 20–30% reductions by 2030 and 70–80% by 2040 relative to 2008 levels. In April 2025, the Marine Environment Protection Committee approved a draft 'IMO Net-Zero Framework' combining a global fuel standard with an economic measure (a price on marine GHG emissions) — the first such sector-wide carbon pricing mechanism, scheduled for formal adoption in late 2025 and entry into force in 2027. Small Island Developing States have pushed for stronger ambition and revenue redistribution, while major flag and producer states have resisted compliance costs. In parallel, the IMO confronts acute maritime security challenges: Houthi attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea and Bab el-Mandeb since late 2023 have rerouted significant traffic around the Cape of Good Hope; tensions in the South China Sea, Black Sea, and Strait of Hormuz raise persistent freedom-of-navigation questions; and the proliferation of sanctions-evading 'dark fleet' tankers poses safety, environmental, and insurance risks.

Key players

North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)

North Atlantic Treaty Organization: Deterrence, Enlargement, and Out-of-Area Challenges

NATO was established by the Washington Treaty of April 1949 as a collective defense alliance among twelve founding members, anchored by Article 5's commitment that an armed attack against one ally shall be considered an attack against all. The Alliance evolved through the Cold War as the principal Western military bulwark against the Warsaw Pact, and after 1991 reoriented toward crisis management, partnership, and successive rounds of enlargement that brought former Warsaw Pact and post-Soviet states into the Alliance. Article 5 has been invoked only once, following the September 11, 2001 attacks against the United States. Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 catalyzed the most significant strategic shift since the Cold War's end. The 2022 Madrid Strategic Concept identified Russia as 'the most significant and direct threat' to Allied security and named China a 'systemic challenge' for the first time. Finland (2023) and Sweden (2024) joined the Alliance, doubling NATO's border with Russia. Allies have rebuilt force posture along the eastern flank, expanded multinational battlegroups to brigade-level, and at the 2023 Vilnius and 2024 Washington summits committed to a defense-spending floor of 2% of GDP — with the 2025 Hague Summit agreeing on a path toward 5% (3.5% core defense plus 1.5% related security investment) by 2035. The Alliance now confronts overlapping challenges: sustaining military and political support for Ukraine amid uncertainty over US policy direction, managing Türkiye-Greece tensions and Hungary's spoiler posture, integrating new members in the High North, contending with hybrid threats including sabotage and cyber operations attributed to Russia, and defining NATO's posture toward China and the Indo-Pacific in coordination with the IP4 partners (Australia, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea).

Key players

United Nations Security Council (UNSC)

UN Security Council: Sudan and Cyber Threats to Critical Infrastructure

The Security Council, established under Chapter V of the UN Charter, bears primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security. Its fifteen members — five permanent (China, France, Russia, United Kingdom, United States) with veto power and ten elected non-permanent members — can adopt legally binding decisions under Chapter VII, including sanctions and authorization of the use of force. The Council's effectiveness has long been constrained by P5 divisions, sharpened since 2022 by Russia's war in Ukraine and the Gaza conflict. The situation in Sudan has produced the world's largest displacement crisis. War erupted on 15 April 2023 between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) under General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) under General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo ('Hemedti'), shattering a fragile civilian-military transition that followed the 2019 ouster of Omar al-Bashir. By 2025, more than 12 million people had been displaced and famine had been formally declared in parts of Darfur, including the Zamzam camp. The Council's 1591 sanctions regime, originally focused on Darfur, has proved difficult to enforce; external actors including the UAE and Russia have been credibly linked to weapons flows. The ICC retains an open Darfur referral dating to Resolution 1593 (2005). In parallel, the Council is grappling with cyber threats to critical infrastructure. Following years of work in the GGE and Open-Ended Working Group (OEWG) on ICTs, states have agreed on a set of voluntary norms — including non-targeting of critical infrastructure — but attribution, enforcement, and the applicability of international humanitarian law remain contested. High-profile incidents affecting hospitals, energy grids, water systems, and undersea cables have moved cyber from a thematic to an operational item on the Council's agenda.

Key players

United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA)

UN Environment Assembly: Plastics, Biodiversity, and the Triple Planetary Crisis

The UN Environment Assembly is the world's highest-level decision-making body on the environment, created in 2012 at the Rio+20 Conference when UNEP's Governing Council was upgraded to universal membership. UNEA convenes biennially in Nairobi and sets the global environmental agenda, oversees UNEP, and adopts resolutions guiding international environmental governance. Its work is organized around UNEP's framing of a 'triple planetary crisis': climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution and waste. The Assembly's signature current initiative is the negotiation of a legally binding global instrument on plastic pollution, mandated by UNEA Resolution 5/14 in March 2022. The Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) held five formal sessions from 2022 to 2024 and convened INC-5.2 in Geneva in August 2025, but failed to conclude a treaty owing to deep divisions between a 'High Ambition Coalition' supporting binding caps on virgin plastic production and a group of oil- and petrochemical-producing states (including Saudi Arabia, Russia, and Iran) insisting that the instrument focus on waste management downstream. Negotiations are expected to continue, with intense pressure to deliver a credible outcome. UNEA also oversees implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework adopted under the CBD in December 2022, including the 30x30 target; supports the chemicals and waste cluster (Basel, Rotterdam, Stockholm, Minamata Conventions and the new Global Framework on Chemicals); and is increasingly engaged with the environmental dimensions of armed conflict, deep-sea mining, and solar radiation modification governance. Financing — particularly through the Global Environment Facility and the new Cali Fund on biodiversity genetic resources — remains a persistent point of contention between developed and developing states.

Key players