Sánchez holds a meeting with the Chinese prime minister before meeting with Xi Jinping to "relaunch" relations

MADRID, 31 Mar. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, who is already in Beijing as part of his state visit to China, has thanked the Chinese Prime Minister, Li Qiang, for the invitation and welcome that the country's authorities have given him in a meeting that has served as a prelude to the one that he will hold throughout the day with the president of the Asian giant, Xi Jinping, with whom he will address, among other issues, the objective of "relaunching bilateral relations".

"We started an intense agenda of meetings in Beijing with the aim of relaunching bilateral relations between the two countries, both commercial and cultural, and addressing the global geostrategic situation," Sánchez published this Friday on his Twitter account.

In the same message, the head of the Spanish Executive has "thanked" Li Qiang for having invited him and has highlighted the "welcome" he has received.

Sánchez's agenda for today, in addition to meetings with the Prime Minister and the President of China, includes the signing of agreements, conversations with Spanish businessmen based in China and with Chinese tour operators, as well as a meeting with the President of the Chinese National People's Congress, Zhao Leji. Finally, Sánchez is scheduled to make an appearance before the media from the Spanish Embassy in the Chinese capital.

"NOBODY WANTS ECONOMIC FRAGMENTATION OR WAR"

Since Thursday, Sánchez has been carrying out an official visit to China with the main task --in addition to learning first-hand about the plans for peace in Ukraine of the Chinese president, Xi Jinping-- of strengthening relations at the bilateral level, on all cheap, and attract Chinese tourists back to Spain after the pandemic.

This Thursday, the Spanish president warned from the Chinese island of Hainan of the "global challenges of an unprecedented scale" that humanity is facing and assured that "nobody wants economic fragmentation or war." He did so in a speech at the Boao Forum for Asia (BFA), the first stop on his two-day visit.

Before the trip, the Spanish government highlighted the importance of this visit for the time it is taking place, since it will be the first by a European leader with Xi once Beijing has put forward its twelve-point proposal for peace. in Ukraine and especially after the meeting of the Chinese leader last week in Moscow with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Sánchez himself affirmed days before that he will be able to see "first-hand" the approach of the Chinese president, although he made it clear that Ukraine must be counted on for any possible solution. In this sense, in Moncloa they consider that now it would be important for Xi to also speak with the Ukrainian president, Volodimir Zelenksi.