Pedro Sánchez to meet Joe Biden for first time at NATO summit

SPAIN'S president Pedro Sánchez will finally meet his US counterpart in person on Monday (June 14) when they both travel to Brussels, which will be the first time a top representative has sat and talked with a leader of the North American country face to face in exactly three years.

Last time was in June 2018, when King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia attended the White House, when Donald Trump was in power, and a Spanish and US president have not met in person since September 26, 2017 when the former country's then leader, Mariano Rajoy, travelled to Washington DC.

United States leaders have not been to Spain for five years – Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle were the most recent, in July 2016, meeting HRHs Felipe and Letizia, president Rajoy and the then leaders of the key opposition parties, Pedro Sánchez (PSOE, or socialists), Albert Rivera (centre-right Ciudadanos) and Pablo Iglesias (left-wing Podemos).

The Obamas also had two official State visits at the White House from Spain – HRHs Felipe and Letizia in September 2015, their Royal trip to the USA as King and Queen rather than as Prince and Princess of Asturias, and Mariano Rajoy in January 2014.

As yet, due to the pandemic, Pedro Sánchez (pictured right) has not been able to meet with the USA's 46th president Joe Biden (pictured left, with Kamala Harris) in the nearly eight months since the latter won the elections and the five months since he took up office, but the beginning of next week will give them a chance to briefly get to know each other and chat.

They have only been able to schedule a few minutes for their first meeting, but both are keen to strengthen the relationships between their two countries, and their key aims as national leaders are similar. 

As an example, following Donald Trump's decision to pull the USA out of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, within Biden's first 100 days in office he has openly stressed his concerns about the global warming emergency and called a virtual Climate Summit this April with 40 world leaders, Sánchez being one of them.

With the improved Covid-19 situation in Europe and the USA in particular, largely helped by the worldwide vaccine roll-out, the NATO Summit in Brussels starting Monday will be an in-person event, although it is likely national leaders in countries still stricken by the virus or who want to exercise extra caution will take part via video conference.

The outcome of Sánchez's and Biden's meeting will be keenly awaited, but is unlikely to produce any great detail due to its being very short – in-depth plans for working together will almost certainly come at a later date, when they are able to spend more time in a dedicated conversation either face to face or online.