A high-ranking White House official advances that as soon as the US president arrives in the Spanish capital, he will hold bilateral meetings with the monarch and his Spanish counterpart
The President of the United States, Joe Biden, will hold meetings next week in Madrid with the King of Spain, Philip VI, and with the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, to reaffirm “the strong bilateral relationship”. A high-ranking White House official said in a call with reporters that as soon as Biden arrives in the Spanish capital, he will hold bilateral meetings with the monarch and Sánchez. The official, who did not specify the date of the bilateral meetings with Sánchez and the king, recalled that Spain will host the NATO meeting and that the previous meetings will serve to review the preparations for the summit.
The American president will travel to Spain to participate in the NATO summit, which is scheduled to take place between June 29 and 30, after attending the G7 meeting in Germany that will take place between June 26 and 28. On Tuesday, Biden and Sánchez had a telephone conversation to analyze the agenda of the meeting of the Atlantic Alliance.
The head of the Spanish Executive reported the call on social networks: “I have just spoken with President Biden about the next NATO Summit in Madrid, a historic event in which the Alliance will strengthen its unity and cohesion, in defense of the democracy and freedom,” Sánchez wrote. The Spanish president added that Biden thanked him for his efforts to organize the summit, which will be his first visit to Spain since he assumed the US presidency.
For its part, the White House noted in a statement that Biden thanked Sánchez for Spain’s “close collaboration” in response to the war in Ukraine, especially the delivery of humanitarian and security aid. According to the note, the two discussed preparations for the NATO summit and welcomed the opportunity to see each other during that event.
It is expected that the Alliance partners will approve a new strategic concept at the Madrid meeting and that they will discuss, among other issues, the situation of the war in Ukraine and the requests for accession to NATO from Sweden and Finland.