Xi and Sánchez say China and Spain should help safeguard multilateralism

President Xi Jinping and Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez attend a meeting at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, yesterday [AP Photo]

The leaders of China and Spain yesterday pledged to strengthen their relations and work to safeguard multilateralism at a time when the world is being impacted by various conflicts, including the recent war in Iran, during a meeting in Beijing.

“We should strengthen communication, consolidate mutual trust, cooperate closely, oppose the world’s retrogression to the law of the jungle, and jointly safeguard genuine multilateralism,” said Chinese President Xi Jinping during a reception for Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez at the Great Hall of the People.

Sánchez agreed and said both countries “can contribute to finding solutions to the various trade tensions that exist, to the geopolitical difficulties and complexities of today’s world, to the wars, to the environmental and social challenges that afflict the world.”

Sánchez is in China for his fourth trip in just over three years to the world’s second-largest economy.

Spain is looking to strengthen its political and commercial ties with Beijing, and the visit comes as Sánchez faces a strained relationship with the U.S. over his opposition to the war in Iran.

Sánchez sees China as key to end the war

Later, during a press conference, Sánchez said that China was the only global player he could see helping end wars in Iran and other places, such as Ukraine.

“I find it very difficult to find other interlocutors, beyond China, who can resolve this situation in Iran and the Strait of Hormuz,” Pedro Sánchez said, urging the Asian giant to do more on the diplomatic front.

Sánchez said that his country wants to avoid impunity for those who commit crimes in places like Gaza, where he said a “genocide” has been committed.

“International law is being violated today, fundamentally by one country: the government of Israel,” he said. “There is also an absolutely illegal response from the Iranian regime regarding a war that we have described from the very beginning as a mistake and an illegality.”

Sánchez has been one of Europe’s loudest critics of the U.S. and Israel’s military actions in the Middle East. His government recently declared its airspace closed to U.S. planes being used in the Iran war, and says it is not allowing the U.S. to use jointly operated military bases in southern Spain for actions related to the Iran war.

One of the goals of Sánchez’s trip has been to find ways to reduce the trade gap with China, and he said that after raising the issue in his meeting with Xi, he sensed “understanding and a willingness to work to achieve that balance.”

He said that Spain will sign 19 agreements, 10 of them on the economic side, including some to expand access for Spanish agrifood products in China and boost exports.

“The current trade imbalance between Europe and China, and between Spain and China, is excessive, and we must do everything possible to correct it,” he said.

The prime minister added that China must see Spain and Europe as a place to invest. E. EDUARDO CASTILLO, BEIJING, MDT/AP