Madrid (EFE) it will not make it clear to him if he will become more involved in favor of peace.
Sánchez returned to Madrid this Saturday from his official trip to China, in which he was accompanied by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, and in which he met with the country’s main authorities and participated in various economic events .
Satisfaction with the development of that trip is the common denominator of the analysis that diplomatic and Moncloa sources make of a visit that had its main focus on the meeting he had with Xi in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.
After announcing the trip, Sánchez explained that he would expose the Spanish and EU position to the Chinese president, and already in Beijing he told him face to face that he supports the peace plan of the Ukrainian leader, Volodímir Zelenski, and asked him to get in touch with him after having met in Moscow a few days ago with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin.
There was no response to that request, but the Government did not expect it either because the cited sources emphasize that this is a long process in which steps are predicted little by little.
However, they assure that Sánchez told him what he had to tell him and that the Chinese president appreciated the frankness and courage of the Prime Minister, who was the first European leader to meet with him after his meeting in the Russian capital with Putin.
Nor does the government expect that Xi will express a concrete commitment to get more involved in favor of peace in upcoming meetings that he has planned in Beijing with other EU leaders such as the French president, Emmanuel Macron, or the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.
But they do highlight the importance of their approaches to peace, in which Spain sees interesting aspects, and that with its attitude, China does recognize that Ukraine is a sovereign state.
The government would like Xi to talk to Zelensky
In accordance with Sánchez’s message, the government would like Xi to speak with Zelenski and to convey to Putin the need to advance on solutions for peace.
That would be a maximum objective, but they interpret that the minimum, consisting of China not getting involved in the war in Ukraine for bad, has been achieved because it has positioned itself against the use of the nuclear threat and all the indications are that they point to it will not sell weapons to a person like Putin, against whom there is an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court.
Although Xi was not the one who brought up the Ukraine war in the meeting with Sánchez, he did not refuse to talk about this matter despite not specifying his future action.
The head of government, who did not want to give details of the Chinese president’s position by referring his interlocutor for it, did explain that they had had a “sincere exchange” of opinions on the matter.
It is assumed that, when there is an opportunity, the Government will present the impressions of this visit to both representatives of Ukraine and the European Union.
In addition to talking about Ukraine or bilateral relations, Sánchez raised respect for human rights in the framework of the dialogue between the European Union and China without the Spanish delegation perceiving any discomfort from their hosts.
The feeling with which the Government left Beijing is that the two countries are even more friends after this trip after the frankness in Sánchez’s approaches because they are convinced that when someone is frank, the relationship is easier.
In the same sense, they believe that Spain’s success with this visit is that it comes out of it with the seal of credibility.
