King Felipe VI closes the 26th Armed Forces General Staff Course

•  He was accompanied at the closing ceremony by the Minister of Defence and the Chief of Defence 

His Majesty the King presided over the closing ceremony of the XXVI Armed Forces General Staff Course (CEMFAS), accompanied by the Minister of Defence Margarita Robles Fernández and the Chief of Defence, Admiral  Teodoro E. López Calderón, among other authorities.

The XXVI CEMFAS, which was held at the 'Centro Superior de Estudios de la Defensa Nacional' (CESEDEN), was attended by 144 students; 117 nationals (57 from the Army, 23 from the Navy, 25 from the Air and Space Army, 9 from the Civil Guard, 2 from the National Police Corps, and 1 from the Diplomatic Corps) and 27 officers from 20 allied and friendly countries.

The objective of CEMFAS is to train future officers to occupy posts in national and international General Staffs, in the Central Body of the Ministry of Defence and in other bodies of the General State Administration where their presence is considered necessary.

The closing ceremony began with a speech by Lieutenant General Miguel Ballenilla y García de la Gamarra, Director of CESEDEN, who thanked His Majesty the King for attending. This was followed by a speech by Lieutenant General Pablo Guillén García, Director of the Higher School of the Armed Forces.

After reading out the appointments as new General Staff graduates of the students who completed the course with flying colours, the Minister of Defence thanked His Majesty the King for his presence and expressed the commitment and loyalty of the Armed Forces to Spain.

In this edition, the number 1 of the course was, among the national students, Army Commander Alvaro Guzmán Peces and among the international students, Lieutenant Colonel Ian Paul Lewis of the Royal Air Force.