MADRID, Jan. 25 (Xinhua) -- Spanish Foreign Minister Alfonso Dastis said Thursday that his country would respond "in a proportional manner" to the decision taken by Venezuela to declare 's Ambassador in Caracas Jesus Silva Fernandez to be "persona no grata" and expel from the country.

Speaking to the media from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Dastis said that as well as being "proportional", Spain's response would also be "reciprocal to Venezuela".

He insisted that Spain had been attempting to do was "help the process" of dialogue between the Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro and opposition groups.

It is also true, Dastis said, that relations between the two countries have been tense since 2014, after Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy received Lilian Tintori, wife of jailed Venezuelan right-wing activist Leopoldo Lopez.