• Defense 83% of Spaniards support remaining in NATO and the majority see Russia as responsible for the war in Ukraine

  • Preparations The Government maintains that the NATO summit is the most important "since the fall of the Iron Curtain"

  • Measures NATO Summit in Madrid: dates, restrictions and traffic cuts

The NATO summit to be held next week in

Madrid,

in addition to being a showcase for

Spain

and placing Madrid at the epicenter of today's world, is a window of opportunity for Pedro Sánchez to strengthen his profile as an international leader, a company that worries and occupies you.

The President of the Government's team has been working for months to set up its own agenda apart from its participation in the summit, an agenda of bilateral meetings, which will mean the first formal meeting between Sánchez and Joe Biden, president of the United States.

But during the next week, between Tuesday and Thursday, the Chief Executive will host up to five official visits in La Moncloa:

Australia, New Zealand,

the aforementioned

USA, Iceland and Canada.

Also, on Tuesday, he will hold a working lunch at the presidential complex with the NATO Secretary General,

Jens Stoltenberg,

before the summit officially begins.

The focus is, inevitably, on Biden, who will travel to La Moncloa as soon as he lands in Madrid from

Germany

after participating in the G-7 summit.

Now, finally, the long-awaited meeting for La Moncloa will take place.

There will be photo and appearance.

The revenge of that little walk in June 2021 that was sold as what it was not in any case.

The photo that will be produced in the presidential complex, government sources explain, is the crystallization of months of work.

In fact, in the 20-minute phone call that both had this week, the matter was discussed, as revealed in a statement from the US embassy in Spain.

In the Government they do not hide their "satisfaction and joy" for the bilateral meeting with the US president.

An appointment that focuses on the objective of "strengthening, advancing and adapting" relations with a country that is of "maximum importance for Spain", explain government sources.

That same Tuesday, after the meeting in the early afternoon at La Moncloa, Biden will travel to the Royal Palace where he will hold a meeting with Felipe VI.

In addition to the highest US president, Sánchez will meet on the 28th with the Prime Minister of Australia,

Anthony Albanese

;

the Prime Minister of New Zealand,

Jacinda Ardern

-with whom Sánchez has developed an "intense relationship"-;

the Prime Minister of Iceland,

Katrín Jakobsdóttir

;

and already on Thursday the 30th with the Prime Minister of Canada,

Justin Trudeau.

The Government is working so that on the days of the summit, on the margins of it, other meetings can take place, in this case brief, by way of greeting and a short conversation.

Business relationships

Why have these countries been chosen to hold bilateral meetings?

They are those with whom you want to strengthen and deepen the relationship for various reasons, but with trade and economic relations being a key driver.

In addition, government sources reflect, it is about countries with which it is more complex to have regular dealings, as is the case with European countries in the framework of the different meetings that are held, for example, in

Brussels

, to which In addition, countries like Australia, New Zealand or Canada and the USA themselves are more complex when it comes to organizing a visit.

Along with the meeting with Biden, the one in Canada also takes on special relevance.

And it is that it will be a meeting plus a lunch between Sánchez and Trudeau.

Both leaders, they argue in La Moncloa, cultivate a "close relationship".

In fact, it will be the eighth time that they meet and on this occasion, in addition to attending the NATO summit, it is wrapped up as an official visit in return for the one that Pedro Sánchez made to Canada in September 2018, a few months after reach La Moncloa.

The restrictions due to the pandemic had been delaying this meeting on Spanish soil.

This bilateral agenda ratifies Sánchez's strategy at the international level.

In recent months, the chief executive has intensified his agenda.

Good for the contacts in Europe in search of a way out of the energy crisis, achieving in a tense Council of Europe the Iberian exception in energy policy.

Good for his trips in the context of the war in Ukraine, even going to

Kiev.

Well with economic appointments to try to attract investment to Spain, as he did by attending the

Davos Forum.

From La Moncloa they believe that now Spain "is on the international agenda due to the assessment that is made of our country from other forums, be they economic or from the

European Commission

" and that before it did not occupy that ranking.

"Spain is very well positioned, we have earned absolute respect by looking for solutions," expose socialist sources.

There is a fact that stands out both in La Moncloa and in the PSOE to show the position that Sánchez has worked in Europe: the good relationship he maintains with

Ursula von der Leyen,

president of the European Commission.

And this despite the fact that they are from different political families.

In fact, it is common for both the Government and the PSOE to take refuge in statements by Von der Leyen in which he highlights the economic management of Spain, and of European funds, to deactivate the discourse of the PP - the political family to which the President of the Commission.

«The president since he is in the Government has offered his help to the Commission.

When an Executive, instead of torpedoing proposals, defends a position and tries to lead, it is normal for them to appreciate that support, ”explain socialist sources.

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  • Pedro Sanchez

  • Joe Biden

  • Europe

  • Germany

  • Ukraine