During his visit to Beijing, Spain's socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez seems to be getting closer and closer with China, following his mid-week suggestion/encouragement to Europe to turn to China following the tariffs announced by US President Trump. Approaching the Asian country would be "like cutting your own throat", the US had warned the Spanish leader.
HDN Newsroom
The socialist leader of Spain's visit to Beijing is mainly aimed at finding new markets and investors for Spain.
Spain favors a more balanced relationship between the European Union and China based on negotiations to resolve disputes and cooperation in areas of common interest, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said today from Beijing after meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
At the start of yesterday's meeting, Sanchez noted that Spain sees China as an EU partner. Brussels' official positioning of China in its 2019 strategy is that it is a "partner for cooperation, an economic competitor and a systemic rival".
"We want to work on issues of common interest, to promote trade and investment in a balanced way to benefit the development of our countries on the basis of our respective visions, and we want to forge closer ties between our societies," Sanchez told Xi.
The socialist leader of Spain's visit to Beijing, which is mainly aimed at finding new markets and investors for Spain, also comes in the wake of the US customs tariff campaign that has plunged global markets into instability.
Spanish officials dismissed a US warning that approaching the Asian country would be "like cutting your own throat".
Spain has a large trade deficit with China, which is its fourth largest trading partner, buying 45 billion euros worth of goods from it, while its exports to it amount to only about 7.4 billion euros.
In September 2024, during Pedro Sánchez's previous trip to China, tensions between Beijing and the EU had reached a peak after the European Commission's decision to impose an additional tax on electric vehicles manufactured on Chinese territory.
The Spanish prime minister, then, like the heads of other European countries, had during his visit called on the EU to reconsider its plan for customs duties on these cars.
This time, before Beijing, the socialist Spanish leader visited Vietnam, where on Wednesday (9 April) he signed a joint statement with his Vietnamese counterpart Pham Min Chin, with the aim of upgrading relations between the two countries at the level of global strategic cooperation.
