Pedro Sánchez will be the first international leader to visit China after its president, Xi Jinping, has taken the initiative to unilaterally present a peace plan for Ukraine. The head of the Government of Spain will take advantage of his counterpart’s invitation to Beijing to find out the details of a road map with which the Asian giant has distanced itself from the position aligned with Russia that it had maintained up to now in the war that since February Last year it was fought on European territory.
In La Moncloa they highlight the role that the second world power has traditionally played for stability in the geopolitical context and consider that it is essential that it participate in the search for solutions to problems that would be difficult to find without an actor of its importance. The consideration that is going to be transferred from Madrid regarding the exit for this specific conflict is that it must necessarily be the Ukrainians who decide the terms of the ceasefire.
Although Sánchez is attending this two-day mini-tour as the national representative, government sources highlight the importance of this appointment -which is part of the 50th anniversary of the start of diplomatic relations between the two countries- taking place three months after the Spanish leader assumes the rotating Presidency of the European Council. They also specify that the position of the 27 regarding the Russian invasion of Ukraine has been united from the beginning and that it will be the one they share on this official visit to China.
Xi traveled to Moscow this week to meet Vladimir Putin just after the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for him for the deportation of Ukrainian children to his country since the start of the war that Russia’s leader denies. After confirming that he will face a third term as head of his country, the Chinese president tried to establish himself as an international mediator of the conflict by presenting his peace plan.
During his stay in China, Sánchez will also participate this Thursday in the inauguration of the Boao economic forum, in the south of the country, which is the Asian equivalent of Davos and in which 28 countries of the region are represented. Their counterparts from the Ivory Coast, Malaysia, Singapore and Kazakhstan will participate in this meeting, as well as the managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Kristalina Georgieva.
Back in Beijing, Sánchez will meet on Friday with the three highest authorities in the country: apart from Xi himself, he will hold meetings with the Prime Minister, Li Qiang, and with the President of the Standing Committee of the National Assembly, Zhang Dejiang in the Great Hall of the Town, located in Tiananmen Square. As highlighted in Moncloa, it is a format reserved for the highest level visits.
The Spanish delegation will also hold meetings with representatives of the 800 national companies established in China and with the managers of the multinationals Mitsubishi and AstraZeneca. Among the economic objectives of this trip is trying to reduce the trade deficit between the two countries by trying to minimize tariff barriers and facilitating access to public tenders.
In addition, the Government’s objective is for Spain to once again be a priority destination for Chinese tourism, of quality and high purchasing power, which had a growing trend until the Covid pandemic kept the country’s borders closed for almost three years. In order to boost this strategic market once again, specific meetings have been arranged with tour operators.
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