Spain is planning to build political and financial links to China as US President Donald Trump upends the global economic order.
The tactic is part of a new Asia-Pacific strategy that outlines Madrid’s priorities for the next three years. The document, which was released yesterday, calls for more high-level meetings and economic exchanges between Spain and China.
“Spain seeks to advance a positive and ambitious bilateral agenda with China, reinforcing the comprehensive strategic partnership as well as the excellent bilateral relationship,” the strategy says.
Photo: Reuters
The strategy reaffirms Spain’s position as Europe’s leader on efforts to deepen ties with China — and its willingness to rebuff warnings in doing so from the Trump administration. Last year, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez traveled to Beijing just days after Trump announced tariffs on nearly every country, a move US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent criticized as “cutting your own throat.”
“We maintain a good relationship with China; we work to ensure that this remains the case, given that it is a major global actor,” the Spanish government said in a statement regarding the strategy. “The same applies to the United States. This is consistent with our overall foreign policy, and in fact many European countries, such as France and the United Kingdom, are doing something similar.”
Sanchez is to visit China from April 13 to 15, marking his fourth appearance in more than three years.
Spain’s push to deepen its relationship with China not only risks irking the US, but even some of its European neighbors. While numerous European countries, including Germany, are seeking to stabilize ties with Beijing as the transatlantic partnership fractures, those same countries also increasingly see China as an economic rival that has undermined European manufacturing.
Madrid’s foreign policy calls on EU countries to “address in a coordinated manner the more structural dimensions of relations with actors the size of China and India, in particular those relating to the overall framework of economic and trade relations.”
Madrid wants to improve Spanish companies’ access to the Chinese market while also attracting investment in sectors such as automotive manufacturing and renewable energy. Spain runs a significant trade deficit with China.
“Since 2024, China has been Spain’s top supplier, ahead of Germany and France,” the strategy says.
Proposed measures in the document include “a strategic dialogue mechanism at the ministerial level to further strengthen and institutionalize the high-level exchanges of recent years.”
The strategy also says Spain is particularly interested in China’s rare earths industry, as well as scientific and cultural cooperation.
“Our strategy should be understood as complementary to European action towards our Asian partners,” the Spanish government said.
LIKE FATHER, LIKE DAUGHTER: By showing Ju-ae’s ability to handle a weapon, the photos ‘suggest she is indeed receiving training as a successor,’ an academic said North Korea on Saturday released a rare image of leader Kim Jong-un’s teenage daughter firing a rifle at a shooting range, adding to speculation that she is being groomed as his successor. Kim’s daughter, Ju-ae, has long been seen as the next in line to rule the secretive, nuclear-armed state, and took part in a string of recent high-profile outings, including last week’s military parade marking the closing stages of North Korea’s key party congress. Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) released a photo of Ju-ae shooting a rifle at an outdoor shooting range, peering through a rifle scope
India and Canada yesterday reached a string of agreements, including on critical mineral cooperation and a “landmark” uranium supply deal for nuclear power, the countries’ leaders said in New Delhi. The pacts, which also covered technology and promoting the use of renewable energy, were announced after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney hailed a fresh start in the relationship between their nations. “Our ties have seen a new energy, mutual trust and positivity,” Modi said. Carney’s visit is a key step forward in ties that effectively collapsed in 2023 after Ottawa accused New Delhi
Gaza is rapidly running out of its limited fuel supply and stocks of food staples might become tight, officials said, after Israel blocked the entry of fuel and goods into the war-shattered territory, citing fighting with Iran. The Israeli military closed all Gaza border crossings on Saturday after announcing airstrikes on Iran carried out jointly with the US. Israeli authorities late on Monday night said that they would reopen the Kerem Shalom crossing from Israel to Gaza yesterday, for “gradual entry of humanitarian aid” into the strip, without saying how much. Israeli authorities previously said the crossings could not be operated safely during
Counting was under way in Nepal yesterday, after a high-stakes parliamentary election to reshape the country’s leadership following protests last year that toppled the government. Key figures vying for power include former Nepalese prime minister K. P. Sharma Oli, rapper-turned-mayor Balendra Shah, who is bidding for the youth vote, and newly elected Nepali Congress party leader Gagan Thapa. In Kathmandu’s tea shops and city squares, people were glued to their phones, checking results as early trends flashed up — suggesting Shah’s centrist Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) was ahead. Nepalese Election Commission spokesman Prakash Nyupane said the counting was ongoing “in a peaceful manner”
RSS