MADRID (Reuters) – Spain favours a more balanced relationship between the European Union and China based on negotiations to resolve differences and cooperation in areas of common interest, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Friday in Beijing after meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Sanchez’s visit aims to forge closer economic and political ties with Beijing amid the global fallout of U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff policy, seeking to position Spain as an interlocutor between China and the European Union and attract Chinese investment.
Spanish officials have rejected a U.S. warning that moving closer to the Asian country would be “cutting your own throat”.
At the start of their meeting, Sanchez said that Spain saw China as a partner to the EU. Officially, the bloc described China as a “partner for cooperation, an economic competitor and a systemic rival” in its 2019 strategy.
“We want to work on issues of common interest, promoting trade and investment in a balanced way to benefit the development of our countries from our respective visions, and we want to foster closer ties between our societies,” Sanchez told Xi.
The Chinese leader underlined that this was Sanchez’s third visit in as many years to the country, adding that strengthening bilateral relations in the current global context promoted peace, stability and prosperity.
(Reporting by David Latona; Editing by Sharon Singleton)
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