The Government has confirmed this Wednesday night that Pedro Sánchez will travel to China next week. After the information was provided by El País, the Minister of the Presidency, Félix Bolaños, confirmed it in an interview with Ser. The hearing takes place after an invitation from Xi Jinping and will take place on March 30 and 31. The moment of the trip is very relevant, when the president, who has just visited Vladimir Putin in Moscow, is reinforcing his role as a mediator in the war that Russia has launched against Ukraine.
Moncloa had already announced that the Prime Minister would be absent from the control session on Tuesday in the Senate and on Wednesday in Congress with the explanation that he had an international agenda but had not revealed his destination. Bolaños has linked that visit to the fact that “the weight that Spain has and the weight that President Pedro Sánchez has is unquestionable in the world.” China, he has stressed, has a “key role” through its “possible mediation” in the war in Ukraine.
He has also related it to the fact that our country is going to occupy the rotating presidency of the EU next semester. It is a “very important” visit, he stressed, which highlights “the weight that Spain has today in international relations”. Bolaños has explained that the head of the Executive will also give the trip a commercial economic perspective. “It will also be very relevant because he will also take the opportunity to meet with the Asia Pacific forum and will be able to have contacts with other leaders and with Spanish companies that have investments in China.”
The last meeting between Sánchez and the President of the People’s Republic of China took place at the G20 Summit on November 15 of last year in Bali (Indonesia). There both held a bilateral meeting in which they discussed the Russian invasion of Ukraine and its impact on the world economy, and other issues such as the food and energy crises and the need to fight climate change.
As reported by Moncloa, the head of the Executive informed him that Spain, together with the vast majority of countries, has condemned Russia’s aggression against Ukraine from the outset and that he referred to this conflict as “a threat to peace and stability that subverts the principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity that China has always upheld”. He further demanded that she use his influence to persuade Putin to end the war. Also. According to the same sources, the future Spanish presidency of the EU was discussed and Sánchez stressed the desire to continue promoting cooperation between Europe and China in trade and investment matters.
In the press release issued by the Chinese government, it was highlighted that 2023 was an important date for both countries, because it coincides with half a century of diplomatic relations. “Spain is willing to promote further development of the Spain-China Comprehensive Strategic Association, taking advantage of the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations,” they pointed out.
The Chinese peace plan
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During his visit to Russia on Tuesday, Xi Jinping met with Putin for three hours, China made public a peace plan weeks ago that maintains that the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of all countries must be defended effectively. and calls for a comprehensive ceasefire to be reached gradually, with the cooperation of the entire international community. But it does not force Russia to withdraw from the occupied areas. A fundamental circumstance that has led Volodimir Zelenski to reject it outright. “It’s just a freeze on the conflict for Russia to prepare,” he said, and return in the future to “occupy” the Ukrainian state.
China’s peace plan is viewed with skepticism by the US, the European Union and NATO. But this is the context in which Pedro Sánchez travels to Beijing. The Government is fully aware that the war in Ukraine completely marks the Spanish presidency of the EU and, in fact, they consider that it will be marked by everything “unexpected” that happens around the conflict. From more economic sanctions against Russia, more military aid to Ukraine or the possibility of a momentary ceasefire about which the Russians do not give positive signals. On the contrary, what Europe foresees is that, with the spring, Putin promotes a military escalation to decant the war.