Ambassador Javier Rupérez graduated with a degree in law (1963) and a degree in journalism (1975) from the University of Madrid. He has been a career diplomat since 1965 and a member of the Spanish National Parliament since 1979. He entered the Spanish Foreign Service in 1965 and has been posted as the secretary of the Spanish Embassies (1967-1969); in Warsaw, Poland (1969-1972); in Helsinki, Finland (1972-1973); as a member of the Spanish Permanent Delegation to the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE); and in the Spanish Permanent Delegation to the International Organizations in Geneva (1973-1975). In 1976, he served as chief of staff of the undersecretary of foreign affairs. The following year he was director general of the cabinet of the Spanish minister of foreign affairs and a member of the Executive Committee of the Union of the Democratic Center.
In 1979, he became a member of the Parliament for Cuenca with the Union of Democratic Center. From 1980 to 1982, he was ambassador head of the Spanish Delegation in the Madrid Session of the CSCE and in 1982 was the first Spanish ambassador to NATO. In 1983, Ambassador Rupérez was the vice president of the Democrat People's Party (PP) and was senator and member of the Regional Parliament of Castilla La Mancha. From 1986 to the present, Ambassador Rupérez has been a member of Parliament for Cuenca with the Democrat People's Party for Madrid with the PP and for Ciudad Real with the PP. In 1987, he became the president of the Christian Democrat Party in Spain. He then became the Spokesman for the People's Party in the Defense Committee and in the Foreign Affairs Committee in Parliament (1989-1996). From 1990 to 2000, he was a member of the Executive Committee of the People's Party. In 1994, he was vice president of NATO. In 1996, he was president of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Spanish House of Deputies, and in 1998 became president of NATO. Ambassador Rupérez is married and has two daughters.