PANISH Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez will visit Beijing next week — with a Ukrainian peace deal on the agenda for talks.
Spain’s Minister for the Presidency (a role responsible for relations between the PM and the various ministries, though Spain is a monarchy) Felix Bolanos said that Chinese President Xi Jinping’s “possible mediation in the war in Ukraine” was a key reason for Mr Sanchez’s trip, planned for March 30-31.
Spain takes over the European Union’s rotating presidency in July.
Mr Sanchez’s government has largely backed the Nato line on pushing for a military defeat of Russia, and he announced in Kiev last month that Spain would supply 10 Leopard tanks to the Ukrainian military.
But his coalition includes the Communist Party of Spain (PCE), which denounces both the Russian invasion and the Nato expansion and Ukrainian attacks on ethnic Russians in the Donbass that led up to it.
The PCE called on the war’s first anniversary last month for an end to all Spanish involvement and a negotiated peace.
The US has poured scorn on China’s peace plan. At a briefing by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday, Code Pink’s Medea Benjamin was dragged from the hall as she challenged the US politician: “You’re supposed to be a diplomat, start negotiating! If you don’t like the Chinese peace proposal, where’s your peace proposal?”
