Sánchez takes advantage of the NATO summit to show off international muscle and catch his breath after the coup of 19-J

The dates married like this, but without a doubt they benefit the President of the Government. After leaving him and his party very affected by the Andalusian elections of 19-J, after facing a very harsh setback at the polls in his fetish community, so severe as to stir the waters in Ferraz and in the Executive, Pedro Sánchez is about to open a week of maximum international exposure. For the NATO summit, which Madrid will host on Wednesday 29 and Thursday 30 June, a key quote, “historic”, which will “reset” the path of the Alliance for the next decade. And also for the meetings bilateral that the chief executive will hold with leaders from five countries before and after the allied meeting. Among them, the American Joe Biden, on Tuesday, and the Canadian Justin Trudeau, the same 30.

Sánchez will be able to recover some oxygen after the disaster of the PSOE in Andalusia thanks to his international agenda, a flank that he has always prided himself on taking care of, an arena in which he feels especially comfortable. He comes to her after a few days of maximum “concern” in the game, as they trust her hard core, in which he has tried to launch gesturessigns that his trajectory is going to change, messages that he has accused the blow.

He has relaunched his parliamentary agenda unblocked the law of democratic memory and is unraveling the repeal of the ‘gag law’ and bringing positions in housing closer—, has sought to rebuild its relationship with ERC —the meeting with Pere Aragonès already seems closer, before the holiday break—, has put the turbo and counterattacked with the preparation of a second most ambitious anti-crisis package. The president culminates this week, precisely, with the Council of Ministers that will approve the decree law of extension of response measures to the war in Ukraine. And it will do so on a Saturday, which guarantees greater exposure and allows it to set the agenda and project the idea that the Government is taking care of the citizens’ concerns at a time when inflation is cracking the economic recovery.

Next week’s portal will be opened by another Council of Ministers, on Monday the 27th. But starting on Tuesday, Sánchez’s album will be filled with highly coveted photos that will help him repair his image just when it has been weakened by 19-J . He was not wanted, because the date of the Atlantic event was set months ago, but he rows in his favor to escape hole. Madrid will be, they affect their team, “the center of the worldof the international community, and all eyes will be on her”. Moncloa has prepared a rich bilateral agenda for the president with leaders of countries to which it is more difficult to travel, or with which it is less likely to coincide in Spain or in international forums.

.@POTUS will meet in Madrid with Felipe VI and @sanchezcastejon before the NATO summit https://t.co/cKXRu1l4xW pic.twitter.com/SoePuRwYb1

– Europe Press TV (@europapress_tv) June 23, 2022

Check in Ifema

All official visits will be made in the Moncloa, and run along the edge of the summit. The round opens on the 28th early in the morning, with a meeting with the Prime Minister of Australia, Labor Anthony Albanesewho took office a month ago. It will be the first time that a top president of the country has set foot in Spain, and it will be used to “strengthen the relationship”, which is already “intense” from the economic-commercial and political point of view. At around 10.30, Sánchez will receive the ‘premier’ of New Zealand, the also Labor Jacinda Arden, with which it already has a “close relationship”. On this occasion, the association of global values ​​between the two States will be formalized.

After dispatching with Ardern, Sánchez will leave Moncloa to accompany the Secretary General of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg —landed in Torrejón de Ardoz at noon—, during the visit to the facilities that will host the NATO summit: two pavilions in the Ifema fairgrounds, in the capital, which occupy 54,000 square meters. Both will check that “everything is ready“and then they will appear together. That will be, they point out in the Executive, the symbolic “kick off” of the appointment. Sánchez and Stoltenberg will have lunch in Moncloa and will address different issues related to the summit, including the Request for accession to the Alliance of Sweden and Finland, still blocked by the refusal of Turkey.

Early on Tuesday afternoon, the president will receive Biden at Moncloa. It will be his first formal meeting, and the first visit of the US president to Spain. The Government grants theutmost importance” to a meeting that aims to “strengthen, update and renew the strategic relationship” between the two countries. Sánchez will be able to shake off the recurring criticism from the right for not having managed to schedule an interview with the Democratic leader in the year and a half he has been in office. White House After dispatching with the president and appearing together before the media, Biden will go to the Royal Palace, where he will hold an audience with Felipe VI.

The socialist leader will meet, meanwhile, with the prime minister of Iceland, the ecosocialist Katrin Jakobsdottir. It will be his last bilateral before going to the dinner that the Kings, starting at 8:30 p.m., will offer to the leaders of the 30 NATO member countries and their companions and Asia-Pacific partners (Australia, South Korea, Japan and New Zealand), plus Sweden and Finland.

During the summit, on Wednesday 29 and Thursday 30, Sánchez will hold more short and informal meetings (the calls ‘pool aside‘) in Ifema. But, at the end of the Atlantic meeting, he will receive the Prime Minister of Canada, the liberal Justin Trudeau (and he will eat with him), with whom he has already seen eight times. This is the representative’s return visit to which Sánchez attended him in September 2018.

The summit officially starts on Wednesday 29. Before the arrival of the leaders, the president will participate in a panel on the role of the organization in a context of strategic competitionin the only official ‘side event’, the one organized by the Elcano Royal Institute at the request of the Alliance, together with the German Marshall Fund, the Munich Security Conference and the Atlantic Council. After Sánchez and Stoltenberg welcome all the participants, the first of the summit sessions will begin, dedicated to Ukraine, and the country’s president, Volodímir Zelenski, will participate by videoconference.

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After lunch, second session of the summit. The discussion will revolve around global challenges, and will include, in addition to the allies, the NATO partners: the EU (through the President of the Council and the Head of the Commission, Charles Michel and Ursula von der Leyen), Sweden and Finland (if their application for entry has not been resolved beforehand), Georgia and the AP4 (Australia, Korea South, New Zealand and Japan).

Wednesday closes with an event that had never been held until now and in which Sánchez has made a special effort, according to government sources: the euro atlantic dinner. The meeting of the leaders of the Alliance together with the representatives of the European institutions (Michel, Von der Leyen and the high representative, Josep Borrell) and the leaders of the member countries of the Union that do not belong to NATO (Sweden, Finland , Ireland, Austria, Malta and Cyprus). It will be a “unique occasion“, they underline in Moncloa, so that the allies and the EU project “a image of unity, cohesion and complementarity to face the security challenges facing the European and Euro-Atlantic space”. Because Sánchez and Stoltenberg want that idea to emerge from the summit, that of joint and complementary work between the EU and NATO. The dinner will be held in the Prado Museumafter a visit to the gallery of the leaders and their companions.