<h6><strong>Eduardo González</strong></h6> <h4><strong>The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, has defended before the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, Navantia's candidacy to win an important contract, which Germany also aspires to, to build submarines for the Navy of this country.</strong></h4> “What I have done is logically defend the Spanish candidacy of a public company such as Navantia, which is doing an extraordinary job,” declared Pedro Sánchez on Tuesday in Bombay, during the press conference with which he concluded his two-day visit to India. According to the head of the Executive, Navantia's candidacy “meets the conditions of the most competitive price and the best technological quality to be able to meet the expectations of such an important contract of 4,000 million euros to build submarines by the Indian Navy.” “That is the approach I made to the Prime Minister and the authorities,” he specified. “Obviously, we respect the procedure, the tender that the Ministry of Defense has opened and, of course, we hope that it is resolved in favor of Spain, but that does not depend on us, it depends on the Indian Government,” he added. Likewise, Pedro Sánchez assured that the Indian Government had conveyed to him its interest in “the construction, or the reinforcement, to put it more specifically, of the entire naval sector in the Indian economy.” “I believe that Navantia can also have great opportunities in this area, both now and in the future,” he said. One of the main objectives of Pedro Sánchez’s visit was, precisely, to try to secure 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. Germany is also bidding for this contract (through the company L&T) and, in fact, Sánchez’s trip took place a few days after a visit to India by the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, to also meet with Narendra Modi. <h5><strong>Business Forum, Spain-India Council Foundation and Bollywood</strong></h5> Sánchez's day in Bombay (the second of his two-day trip to India), which had a clear economic and commercial component, began with the inauguration of the Spain-India Business Summit, in which one hundred Spanish and 150 Indian businessmen participated with the aim of identifying new opportunities for cooperation and investment in key areas such as digitalisation, renewable energies and sustainable mobility. During the event, which was also attended by the Indian Minister of Road Transport and Highways, Nitin Jairam Gadkari, and which was attended by the Spanish Ministers of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, Óscar Puente, and Industry and Tourism, Jordi Hereu, Sánchez assured that Spain wants to "support the growth of India, especially in three major strategic sectors: renewable energies and sustainable development, infrastructure and urban mobility and digitalisation". “We want more Indian companies in Spain and we are eager for more Spanish companies to operate and expand in India,” he added. The event was organised by the Spanish State Secretariat for Commerce, through ICEX, together with the Spanish economic and commercial offices in Bombay and New Delhi, the Spanish Confederation of Business Organisations (CEOE) and the Spanish Chamber of Commerce, with the support of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry of India and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). According to ICEX, India is “one of the fastest growing economies in the world” and is presented “as a priority destination for Spanish companies”. Trade flows between the two countries reached a total of 7.6 billion euros in 2023, with an increase of more than 30% in the last two years. In addition, there are currently more than 230 Spanish companies established in the country, from small consulting services companies to large and sophisticated engineering, construction, industrial and automotive components, energy, water and defense groups. Pedro Sánchez then spoke at the fourth Spain-India Forum, organized by the Spain-India Council Foundation. “Spain and India have strong ties, but we can do more, more business, more investments, more cooperation and more exchanges,” said the head of the Executive during his speech. “Our two governments have agreed that, in 2026, we will celebrate the Year of Spain and India in Culture, Tourism and Artificial Intelligence,” announced Sánchez. This opportunity “offers us a clear horizon to work together, and I am convinced that the Spain-India Council Foundation will play a relevant role in making it a successful year,” he concluded. Later, Pedro Sánchez visited the Bollywood studios, the Indian film empire, where he met with Indian producers to explain the efforts that Spain is making to become an audiovisual hub for Europe in which Bollywood could not only shoot and produce its films, but even establish its own studios in our country. <h5><strong>Begoña Gómez</strong></h5> Pedro Sánchez has travelled to India accompanied by his wife, Begoña Gómez, despite the legal problems she is immersed in. In fact, his presence has coincided with the announcement of a new charge for alleged misappropriation of software from the Complutense University and for alleged intrusion. “The same far-right organisations that are filing a complaint and the same path,” declared Pedro Sánchez at the press conference. The head of the Executive assured that he has “confidence in justice and in the rule of law” and maintains “absolute tranquillity, because where there is nothing, nothing can be taken from it.” “I am increasingly convinced that time will put things in their place,” he concluded. On her side agenda, Gómez (who traveled to India at the invitation of the Modi government) met with three NGOs active in this country (Sonrisas de Bombay, Colores de Calcuta and Vicente Ferrer), held a meeting with twelve start-ups led by students from the private Parul University of Vadodara, visited the provincial museum of Bombay (CSMVS) and was received at the Nita Ambani Foundation in Bombay, sponsored by Nita Ambani, one of the most influential women in India and wife of tycoon Mukesh Ambani, the richest man in Asia. Later, Begoña Gómez joined her husband, with whom she visited the Tata Consultancy Services Executive Briefing Center and the Bollywood studios and participated in a lunch with the governor of the State of Maharashtra, C. P. Radjakrishnan.
