The Minister Jose Manuel Albares will accompany the president on the long official trip to Pedro Sanchez in Beijing and Shanghai. The President continues his international trip, after last week’s African tour, after his visit to Paralympic Games this Thursday in Parisand before attending the United Nations General Assembly, New Yorkend of September.
Sánchez and Albares will leave Madrid on Saturday 7th and will begin their official tour of the two Chinese capitals on Sunday 8th, the political and economic capital. The extensive program will be extended. until Wednesday September 11.
This newspaper was able to confirm this from official sources. The presence of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation reflects the importance that the Government attaches to this visit. “China is a major player, not only in the geopolitics either commercialbut also for Spanish and European efforts to climate transition“, diplomatic sources said.
According to all sources consulted, although the Chinese side has not officially confirmed it, it is assumed that Sánchez will be received with honors by the president. Xi JinpingThis would be the third bilateral summit between the two leaders in just six years. The fourth if we add the private meeting they had on the sidelines of the G-20 in Bali in November 2022.
And this privileged path between the two leaders is something particularly significant for Moncloa. Since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, relations between the Asian giant (“unlimited friend” of Vladimir Putin) and the European Union ended up becoming tense, reaching a serious point, even when Ursula von der Leyen marks a particularly belligerent position.
It was March 2023, several European leaders were trying to seduce Xi, like the French. Emmanuel Macron and German Olaf ScholzShortly after this turning point, Sánchez had already traveled to Beijing, in March 2023, to meet with Xi.
In Brussels, it was even suggested that the personal invitation The fact that the Chinese president asked Sánchez to be the next to pass through his palace was “an attempt by Beijing to divide the EU” over its unequivocal support for Ukraine. Despite these warnings, even the president of the PP, Alberto Nuñez Feijoofully supported the Spanish President’s visit to China.
After a year and a half, the EU has adopted a position of “no decoupling but deterrence” in political relations, and “protection” in sensitive sectors of the continental economy.
Geostrategy
Thus, although Sánchez is not the only European leader to play his own geostrategic role with China, the sources consulted underline that the The “open channel” between Beijing and Madrid is “privileged”besides being necessary, precisely at a stage where the Asian country has consolidated its position as the second great world power.
Spain is struggling not to lose its position among the world’s largest exporters. European automotive industryAnd for this, it needs to attract investments, such as those from the Chinese industry, which covers all production cycles.
The President of the Government was already in China in March 2023, where he met with Xi, whom he had received during a state visit in November 2018. This trip by the Chinese president was completed by Sánchez a few months after his arrival in Moncloa, but it was prepared “with care” by the previous People’s Administration of Mariano Rajoy.
At that time, Spain was looking for its share of the appeal cake. new silk road (Belt and Road Initiative), Xi’s multi-billion dollar global investment program that consolidates the global expansion of a traditionally inward-looking country.
José Manuel Albares, with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, at the G20 summit in Bali, July 2022.
Today, all this has been forgotten, but other avenues of exchange between the two countries have been opened. “It would be neither smart for Spain nor good for Europe to turn its back on China”conclude the sources.
And like Xi’s trip to Spain, he has been working for months in the Foreign Affairs and Moncloa, as evidenced by the fact that the president is accompanied by the head of Foreign Affairs. Albares plans to have contacts with his counterpart, Wang Yi, strong man Xi, who held the post during his first decade in power and returned to power just over a year ago, replacing the younger man who succeeded him, Gang Qin.
Sánchez and Albares will start the journey in Beijing and then fly to Shanghai, to inaugurate the 9th Spain-China ForumThe event, organized by the Association for the Friendship of the Chinese People Abroad and the Spain-China Council Foundation, is being relaunched this year after its last celebration in 2015. And it seeks to build bridges between the economic, cultural and social actors of the two countries.
