The Diplomat
The Board of Trustees of the Spain-China Council Foundation (FCEC) held its last General Meeting of 2022 on December 20, in which the Action Plan for the coming year was analyzed, including the celebration of the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries.
The meeting was attended by some twenty members of the Board of Trustees, plus a dozen who connected telematically, among them the Spanish Ambassador to Beijing, Rafael Dezcallar. The new secretary general of the Foundation, Ramón María Moreno, was also appointed at the meeting.
All the attendees agreed on the need to promote the positive aspects of Spain-China relations, coinciding with the celebration, in 2023, of the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Spain and the People’s Republic of China, an event that will serve to boost the Foundation’s activity.
The members of the Board of Trustees also analyzed the recent changes in Zero COVID‘s policy in China, and agreed that everything points to the return to normality being accelerated. In this regard, the Foundation will try to take advantage of the return of international mobility to resume contacts with Chinese counterparts.
On behalf of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Director General for North America, Eastern Europe, Asia and the Pacific, Javier Salido, took part in the meeting, stressing that “China continues to be an indispensable partner in economic terms” and that the aim is not to disengage with China, but to “correct certain asymmetries”. In recent months, despite China’s closure, high-level contacts between the two countries have been reactivated.
For his part, Ambassador Rafael Dezcallar also pointed out that Spain’s presidency of the European Council, in the second half of 2023, could help Spain “to influence the development of European policy towards China, because we are a large European country, within the Union, and because in China they have a positive perception of their relationship with us”.
For 2023, the Foundation is planning a program of activities closely linked to the celebration of its 50th anniversary. It also intends to resume the Future Chinese Leaders program and continue to develop a wide range of activities for analysis and reflection, such as the China in Depth series, the Deciphering China podcast and the publication of web content on Chinese current affairs and bilateral relations.
