Veteran socialist analysts of global geostrategy warn that while the United States is still debating its course with the mid-term elections of Joe Biden, and while Europe faces the political and economic uncertainty of the war unleashed in Ukraine by Vladimir Putin, the Chinese colossus took the front and Xi Jinping reinforced his absolute power as general secretary at the congress that the Communist Party held in October. In the absence of Putin, Biden met with Xi on Monday, taking advantage of the framework of the G-20 summit in the town of Nusa Dua, on the Indonesian island of Bali, to try to avoid the escalation of a Cold War between the two. world superpowers.
And this Tuesday it will be the President of the Government of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, who in turn will resume direct dialogue with the President of the People's Republic of China, in a bilateral meeting "by mutual agreement" that both leaders have agreed on the margins of the G-20 summit in Bali. According to Moncloa, the two presidents plan to address the global geopolitical situation and issues of mutual strategic interest in their meeting, with the war unleashed by Russia as the great backdrop. "China is perhaps the only actor capable of influencing Russia," warn government sources. Sánchez's intention, therefore, is to tell Xi to "do everything possible to bring peace", in the face of the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine due to the effects of the war and its consequences on the energy market and inflation throughout Europe. In just over six months, Spain will also assume the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union.
Sánchez was already Xi's host when the Chinese president made a state visit to Spain in November 2018. And in May 2021, the two also had a long telephone conversation, once the incidence curve began to bend. the coronavirus pandemic in Spain. Sánchez's visit to China – which his socialist predecessor, President José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, did make in April 2011 – has been on his international agenda practically since he arrived at Moncloa. But it never materialized. Instead, the Spanish president, after participating in the G-20 summit in Bali, will continue his Asian tour tomorrow in Seoul, the capital of South Korea.
At the end of November 2018, during Xi Jinping's state visit to Spain, Sánchez staged his alliance with the Chinese giant against the protectionism that Donald Trump was leading in the United States at the time.
"Without a doubt, these are times of change and, therefore, also of enormous opportunities," the Spanish president assured Xi. If Trump wanted to build a protectionist wall in his country against the commercial and economic expansionism of the Asian colossus, Sánchez considered, instead, that the Chinese president's state visit to Spain was "an excellent opportunity to strengthen commercial and investment ties ”. Spain and China thus renewed and reinforced their "comprehensive strategic partnership" in 2005. Both countries, according to the joint declaration sealed during that visit, "are committed to a global, open, balanced and inclusive world economy based on the rules of the Organization World Trade Organization, reaffirm their commitment to fight against protectionism and unilateralism, and will dedicate themselves to the promotion of a more open market and the elimination of all trade barriers”.
Sánchez and Xi, after attending the signing of some twenty institutional and business agreements in Moncloa, also chaired the first meeting of the Spain-China business advisory council at the El Pardo palace. The Spanish president affirmed that China is "a priority country" and called for revitalizing economic relations "to raise them to a new level at the height of the new reality of China and also of Spain".
Sánchez and Xi had a long telephone conversation, lasting more than half an hour, in May 2021, in which they discussed the relations between both countries and the challenges in the economic and diplomatic fields due to the difficult balance between the United States, the European Union and the Asian giant. Both leaders agreed to insist on betting on multilateralism to face global challenges. A strategy that is especially relevant in the face of challenges such as climate change, for which they agreed to deploy a global climate agenda that is as ambitious as possible, with the Glasgow meeting scheduled for October as a goal.
Sánchez and Xi discussed the post-pandemic situation and highlighted the good cooperation between Spain and China, with the mutual interest in guaranteeing "global, equitable and rapid access" to vaccines. In this line, the Chinese president supported the proposal of "vaccines for all" launched by Sánchez at the European summit in Porto to "fight the pandemic without leaving anyone behind". The Spanish president also informed Xi of the economic recovery plans in Spain, which open opportunities for investment, and expressed his desire to create a climate of trust to promote the global investment agreement between the EU and China.
