Alex Trelinski
SPAIN’S Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has accepted a formal invitation from President Xi Jinping to visit China next week.
The invitation was first reported by the El Pais newspaper on Wednesday and later confirmed by Minister for the Presidency Felix Bolaños in an interview with Cadena Ser radio.
The visit will be the latest in a series of face-to-face meetings between Sanchez and Xi.
The two leaders last met in November 2022 during the G-20 summit in Bali, Indonesia.
Bolaños stated that the visit would be important from a trade and economic perspective, as Sanchez plans to meet with the Asia Pacific Forum and Spanish businesses operating in China.
The Forum will be held in Hainan province next Thursday where Sanchez will discuss business relations between Spain and China and other countries in the region.
Ukraine will be another hot topic for discussion with Xi recently back from a trip to Moscow where he had talks with Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
China has put forward a 12-point peace plan and called for a comprehensive ceasefire, with Xi describing his country’s position on the Ukraine conflict as ‘impartial’.
Spain is a big ally of Ukraine and will assume the presidency of the Council of the European Union in July.
Sanchez expressed his ‘unconditional support’ to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy during a trip to Kyiv last month, just before the first-year anniversary of the Russian invasion.
