Spain's PM Calls for China Role in Ending Mideast, Ukraine Wars
"China can do more - for example, by demanding, as it is already doing, that international law be upheld and that conflicts in Lebanon, Iran, Gaza, the West Bank, and Ukraine come to an end," Sanchez said during an address at Tsinghua University in Beijing.
Sanchez, who touched down in China Saturday for a five-day state visit — his fourth since taking office — is scheduled to hold talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping before the trip concludes.
The visit carries notable diplomatic weight: both Spain and China, which are expected to separately host US President Donald Trump next month, have jointly condemned US-Israeli airstrikes on Iran as "unacceptable" and "illegal." Madrid has gone further, shutting its airspace to US fighter jets engaged in the Iran conflict — which erupted on February 28 — and blocking Washington from utilizing its two military installations on Spanish soil for related operations.
Speaking before scholars and students, Sanchez framed international law as the bedrock of global order. "International law is the foundation of everything," he said.
He also sketched a vision of a multipolar world no longer anchored to a single power. "Progress no longer has a single center; rather, it germinates simultaneously in various places around the world," he told the Tsinghua audience. "This is not a hypothesis: it is the new reality," he stressed.
"And Spain, from realism, pragmatism, and responsibility, chooses to embrace it," said Sanchez, according to remarks from his speech posted on X, the social media platform owned by the US company of the same name.
On the question of EU-China relations, Sanchez offered a pointed appeal for deeper engagement. "Europe may seem small on a map. But its weight is decisive, and its unity is a guarantee of stability and prosperity in the world, … a world that cannot be understood without China," he said.
He closed with a call for renewed partnership: "If China and Europe have prospered together in the past, there's no reason why they can't do so again. We are destined to understand each other."
The trip follows a landmark diplomatic milestone — Spanish King Felipe VI visited China approximately five months ago, marking the first trip by a Spanish monarch to the country in 18 years. Bilateral momentum has since grown considerably, with Spain-China trade volumes surpassing $55 billion last year, as Beijing holds its position as Madrid's largest trading partner outside the EU.
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