The government will present its new foreign policy strategy for Asia-Pacific this week

Eduardo González The President of the Government of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, was received this Wednesday, February 18, in New Delhi by the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, with whom he discussed, among other issues, strengthening bilateral relations in defense, security, and technology. “Together with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, I have confirmed the excellent state of relations between Spain and India, which we will continue to strengthen,” the President of the Government wrote on social media, during his visit to New Delhi to participate in the India AI Impact Summit 2026, the largest global summit to date dedicated to Artificial Intelligence (AI). “I congratulated him on the organization of the Summit on the Impact of Artificial Intelligence. We share the need to continue taking steps towards an AI that puts people at the center,” he added. In his subsequent appearance before the media, Pedro Sánchez emphasized that “India is already one of the main players in the global order” and stated that he had conveyed to Modi his government's desire to “revitalize economic and political relations at a higher level, so that the joint voice of Spain and India resonates more strongly on the international stage.” Pedro Sánchez also highlighted Spain's interest in the region and announced that the government will present its new foreign policy strategy for Asia-Pacific this week, a region that "continues to grow." "Spain is a country with a global vocation and a desire to be present wherever the world is changing at breakneck speed, and India is one of those places," he added. He also highlighted that the recently signed free trade agreement between India and the European Union, which is pending ratification by the EU institutions, positions the EU “as the major economy with the greatest access to the Indian market, a market of more than 1.4 billion people,” and opens up “real new opportunities for our companies, our farmers, and also our producers.” “What we want is for sectors as competitive as wine and olive oil to be among the first to take advantage of this new scenario, this new opportunity opening up in a market as vast as India, and thus make the most of the enormous potential of the Indian market,” added Sánchez, who traveled to India accompanied by the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Luis Planas. For its part, the Indian government website reported that Sánchez and Modi had discussed ways to “strengthen the friendship between India and Spain, especially in areas such as defense, security, technology, and others.” “The historic free trade agreement with the EU will have a very positive impact on the economic partnership with Spain and will provide new opportunities for the citizens of our countries,” Modi wrote on social media. Indian investors Before meeting with Narendra Modi, Sánchez met with Indian investors, telling them that “Spain is a country in which to invest” and “a strategic partner, offering growth, stability, talent, and innovation,” he wrote on social media. During this meeting, as he explained at the press conference, the Indian businesspeople expressed their “willingness to continue investing” in Spain and even “to launch new projects, both in the agri-food and pharmaceutical industries, as well as in renewable energy, the automotive sector, and, of course, defense.” Later, he attended the inauguration of the Spanish-Indian mural in the Lodhi Art District of New Delhi, accompanied by the Indian Minister of Culture and Tourism, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat. The mural was painted jointly by Madrid-based artist Jesús Manuel Pinto García (SUSO33), winner of the 2025 Gold Medal for Merit in Fine Arts awarded by the Spanish Ministry of Culture, and two young Indian artists, Tarini Sethi and Ishan Bharat, as part of the Street Art Project in the Lodhi art district, organized by the Spanish Embassy in New Delhi within the activities planned for the Spain-India Dual Year. The Dual Year is An initiative agreed in 2024, during Pedro Sánchez's previous visit to India, to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations through a series of activities related to culture, tourism and Artificial Intelligence. AI Summit This Thursday, Pedro Sánchez will attend the India-Spain Higher Education Conference in New Delhi, where he will participate in the opening ceremony of the Global Summit on the Impact of AI 2026 and address the Summit plenary at noon (7:30 AM in Spain). The International Summit on the Impact of AI, organized by Narendra Modi, will bring together participants from more than one hundred countries, including between 15 and 20 heads of government, more than 50 ministers, and more than 40 CEOs of Indian and global technology giants such as Google, Microsoft, and Facebook. This is Pedro Sánchez's second trip to India in less than a year and a half. The previous visit took place at the end of October 2024 and included the signing, with Narendra Modi, of a Joint Declaration that will serve as a roadmap for the coming years in the political, economic and trade, cultural, scientific, technological, and innovation spheres, as well as in consular affairs, tourism, and other relations. Sánchez's new visit to India (the first by a Spanish president to India since José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero's visit in 2007) also comes just three weeks after the conclusion of negotiations for the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between the European Union and the Asian country, which is expected to boost EU exports to the Indian market by eliminating or reducing tariffs on more than 90 percent of products exported from Europe.

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