The Diplomat
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Arancha González Laya, will hold a telephone conversation today with the new U.S. Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, according to ABC and confirmed by the Government.
The conversation will be the first contact of a member of the Spanish Government with another member of Joe Biden’s Administration, who did not include the head of the Executive, Pedro Sánchez, among the twenty or so leaders of other countries with whom he has spoken since he arrived at the White House almost a month ago.
Biden did receive a congratulatory telegram from His Majesty the King as soon as he took office on January 20, according to ABC, although it was not possible to confirm whether there had been any subsequent conversation between the two.
A few days later, on January 28, during his speech at the reception for the Diplomatic Corps accredited in Spain, Felipe Vi expressed his “best wishes” for Biden’s presidency “with the conviction -he added- that our relations will be strengthened and enriched”.
Don Felipe and Biden have a close friendship forged during the years that the former, as Prince of Asturias, attended the inaugurations of the new Ibero-American presidents, ceremonies which were also attended by the current US president, who was vice president during the terms of Barack Obama, from 2009 to 2017. It was frequent that, in those acts, the Monarch and Biden were seated together and had the opportunity to share many lunches and dinners and talk about different issues.
Precisely, in his capacity as ‘number two’ in the Obama Administration, Biden visited Spain in May 2010 to address issues that the United States considered transcendental such as the fight against terrorism, the maintenance of Spanish troops in Afghanistan or the conflict in Iran. On that occasion, he was received at the Zarzuela Palace by King Juan Carlos, accompanied by Prince Felipe.
Biden’s relationship with the Socialist government headed by José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero was not one of the closest. Before taking office as Vice President, Biden had already criticized the abrupt withdrawal of Spanish troops from Iraq ordered by Zapatero and, once in the Government, he did not take a positive view of the decision to withdraw the military troops that our country had in Kosovo.
When Biden visited Spain in 2010, he went, together with Rodriguez Zapatero -who had not set foot in a barracks for years-, to the headquarters of the Parachute Brigade in Paracuellos del Jarama. The vice-president reserved for its members his praise for their participation in Afghanistan, assuring them that the Americans were indebted to them.
