The President of the Government of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, is already in the White House with the President of the United States, Joe Biden. After signing the book of honor, Sanchez and Biden met in the Oval Office. They exchanged a few words in the presence of the cameras and journalists before the media left the room. "We share common values and our bilateral relations are excellent, we are allies, friends," Sánchez said. "I think the world needs a president committed to good fights like you are," he told Biden, who praised Sanchez's international leadership.
The president of the United States thanked the Spanish for the cooperation in the defense of Ukraine. He also pointed out that the two countries face the challenge of migration, just on the day that the migratory norm that allowed the hot expulsion of immigrants who crossed the border with Mexico without papers has been lifted. Biden has said Spain is doing "a tremendous job on migration."
"We will work with the Spanish presidency" of the European Union, said Biden, who regretted not having spent more time in Spain after his visit last year for the NATO summit: "I would like to have spent more time in Madrid, a week at least," he said. The president has also shown his gratitude for the agreement to have Rota, in Cádiz, as a base for two more destroyers.
Sánchez has stressed that Biden is a "reference in the defense of democracy." "No one would have imagined that he would be endangered here and his leadership and commitment to democracy are an example," he said. In addition to the excellent relations and common values, the President of the Spanish Government has expressed his desire for a lasting peace in Ukraine, where, he has made clear, "there is an aggressor and a victim".
Biden welcomed Sanchez on social media this morning: Today I am proud to welcome our close partner and @sanchezcastejon ally president of Spain to the White House. I look forward to deepening the historic ties between our nations," he tweeted through his official account.
After the meeting, Sánchez plans to make statements outside the White House to the media. In principle, the appearance is scheduled for 15:00 p.m. in Washington, 21 p.m. in mainland Spain.
This Friday is the first visit to the White House of a president of the socialist Spanish Government since José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero attended in 2009, invited by Barack Obama, after the tensions generated with George W. Bush his decision to withdraw Spanish troops from Iraq in 2004 and the controversy that was generated because he did not rise to the passage of the flag of the United States in a parade of the October 12. Mariano Rajoy was twice in the White House in his seven years of government, once with Obama and once with Donald Trump, the latter in September 2017.
Coincidentally, Sánchez opens the electoral campaign for the next municipal and regional elections on May 28 at the White House, in an appointment that La Moncloa had been looking for two and a half years and with which the President of the Government wants to exploit his international profile on the eve of assuming the rotating presidency of the European Union. Sánchez already had a bilateral meeting with Biden in Madrid in June last year on the occasion of the NATO summit.
"The two leaders will review our efforts as NATO allies and close partners to strengthen our bilateral defense relationship, transatlantic security, and economic prosperity. They will talk about our unwavering support for Ukraine, our efforts to impose costs on the Kremlin as Russia continues its brutal war of aggression," White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said when she announced Sanchez's visit last month. "The leaders will also coordinate on a range of issues as Spain prepares to assume the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union in July, including climate change and expanding cooperation with Latin America and the Caribbean."
Among the issues that are on the agenda of relations between the two countries are also migration agreements. Spain and the United States announced almost a year ago, on the occasion of the Summit of the Americas, an agreement to receive Latin American immigrants. Two weeks ago, Washington also reported that the new immigration centers that it was about to open, for the moment in Colombia and Guatemala, would also be a point of reference for legal immigration routes to Spain. The Moncloa also reported two weeks ago of this new agreement.
On Wednesday, Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken held a preparatory meeting for the meeting between the two leaders. In a joint press conference after that meeting, Blinken publicly expressed his country's political will to solve the problem of the contamination of Palomares, the old stone in the shoe in the relations between Washington and Madrid that has dragged on for 57 years.
Sánchez also plans to ask Biden for a solution that eliminates the US tariffs on Spanish black olives, imposed in 2018 by the Donald Trump government and which, despite some adjustments, still remain despite the fact that a panel of the World Trade Organization (WTO) determined that they violated its regulations.
Other topics at the meeting include the fight against climate change, cooperation in science and space and the recent agreement allowing the United States to increase from four to six the number of destroyers stationed at the U.S. naval station at Rota in southern Spain.
Sánchez arrived in Washington on Thursday after the extraordinary Council of Ministers on the drought to deliver to Nancy Pelosi, historic Democratic leader and former president of the House of Representatives, the Grand Cross of the Order of Isabella the Catholic, which was granted by the Spanish Government. In an act closed to the press at the Spanish Embassy, Sánchez stressed that Pelosi "has broken down many glass ceilings and overcome many limits with determination and firmness" by being the first woman to preside over the House of Representatives. The Spanish president also highlighted Pelosi's work to strengthen relations between the United States and Spain and defended that this transatlantic link is now stronger than ever.