Sanchez visits India with his wife and with the aim of securing a mega contract for Navantia

Eduardo González The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, has been in India since Sunday, where he is traveling accompanied by his wife, Begoña Gómez - despite her legal problems - with the purpose of defending Spanish business interests, including the achievement, in direct competition with Germany, of an important contract for Navantia to build submarines for the Indian Navy. Begoña Gómez's presence, announced last Sunday by The Diplomat, is at the invitation of the Indian Government of Narendra Modi and will include her participation in some event (probably a visit to the foundation of Nita Ambani, wife of the Indian tycoon Mukesh Ambani), according to sources from Moncloa. The same sources indicated that the Government is not concerned that the presence of the president's wife - investigated for alleged crimes of influence peddling and corruption - could affect the objectives of Sánchez's official trip, since, they specified, it is part of the normality in this type of trip. This is the first time that Gómez has accompanied her husband on an official trip of a bilateral nature since she has been involved in legal problems. On the other hand, Pedro Sánchez is also traveling accompanied by an important Spanish business delegation with interests in India. In fact, the trip has a prominent economic and commercial component that includes, on the agenda, sectors such as aviation, trade, industry and renewable energy and talks on the relaunch of bilateral trade, investment opportunities and collaboration in infrastructure, information technology and green energy and cooperation agreements in areas such as pharmaceuticals, agro-technology and biotechnology. In addition, the head of the Executive will meet in Bombay with business and cultural leaders. Another of the major objectives of Pedro Sánchez's visit is to try to obtain for Navantia a mega-contract of 4.62 billion euros to build six advanced conventional submarines for the Indian Navy within the framework of Project 75I. It so happens that Germany is also bidding for this contract (through the company L&T) and that Sánchez's trip takes place a few days after a visit to India by the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, to meet with the prime minister, Narendra Modi. In fact, sources from the Indian Ministry of Foreign Affairs have indicated that this will be one of the priority issues of Sánchez's meeting with Modi. The head of the Executive's objective is to convey to his Indian counterpart that the Navantia offer has the full support of the Spanish Government and is technically better and more appropriate to India's needs than the German one. Pedro Sánchez arrived in India this Sunday, but the visit - the first by a Spanish president since that made by José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero in 2007 - really begins this Monday in Vadodara, in the state of Gujarat (where Narendra Modi was born and where he was the top ruler), where Pedro Sánchez will be received by the Indian Prime Minister and both will inaugurate the factory of the Airbus company, in whose capital Spain participates and in which 40 of the 56 C295 aircraft ordered by the Indian Air Force will be manufactured. On Tuesday, Sánchez will travel to Bombay, where he will participate in the Spain-India Council Forum and in a business meeting with representatives of Spanish and Indian companies. In addition, the head of the Executive will visit the studios of Bollywood, the Indian film industry, considered the largest in the world, where he will hold meetings with producers and actors and will highlight the efforts that Spain is making to become an audiovisual hub for Europe where Bollywood could not only shoot and produce its films, but even establish its own studios in our country.

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