Sánchez and Lula will preside over the first Spain-Brazil Summit on April 17 in Barcelona

Eduardo González The Pedralbes Palace in Barcelona will host the first Spain-Brazil Summit on April 17. This is the first High-Level Meeting (HLM) between Spain and a Latin American country, a bilateral format already in place with several countries in our region, in which both heads of government (or heads of state, in some cases) and various ministries participate. The summit was agreed upon in February 2025 by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, and his Brazilian counterpart, Mauro Vieira, during the first meeting of the Permanent Bilateral Commission (CBP) between Brazil and Spain at the Ministry's headquarters in the Santa Cruz Palace in Madrid. “We have decided to elevate bilateral meetings with Brazil to the level of bilateral summits at the presidential level,” thus “establishing this format for the first time with a Latin American country,” announced José Manuel Albares that day during his joint press conference with Vieira. “Spain only uses this format with top-tier strategic partners, such as, of course, Brazil,” he added. Spain currently holds high-level meetings (HLM) with countries such as Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Portugal, France, Turkey, Poland, Mauritania, and Romania. This decision is “tangible proof of the privileged relationship that Spain and Brazil maintain and the importance that Spain gives to Brazil as a regional partner in Latin America and the world,” in its capacity as “a very active and relevant member of the G20 and a member of the BRICS,” Albares emphasized. The date of the meeting was announced in early March by Sánchez and Lula via social media, after a telephone conversation to discuss the situation in the Middle East and the Barcelona summit itself. Aside from the summit, Lula will take advantage of his presence in Barcelona to participate in the fourth meeting of the initiative “In Defense of Democracy: Fighting Extremism,” co-led by Spain and Brazil and launched by the two leaders in September 2024 at UN headquarters in New York, on the sidelines of the General Assembly. On that occasion, representatives from twenty countries were invited, in addition to the President of the European Council and the UN Secretary-General, to address, among other issues, disinformation, hate speech and violent extremism, the fight against inequality, and the promotion of sustainable and inclusive economic growth. The second meeting took place in July 2025 in Chile, with the participation of Pedro Sánchez and the presidents of Chile, Gabriel Boric; Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva; Uruguay, Yamandú Orsi; and Colombia, Gustavo Petro; and the third was held in September of that same year in New York, coinciding with the United Nations High-Level Week. The United States participated in the first edition, but in the third, with Donald Trump already in the presidency, it wasn't even invited. Lula's last official visit to Spain, specifically to Madrid, took place on April 25 and 26, 2023. That was his first visit to our country in almost 20 years, after the one he made in September 2003, during his previous term, in which he was received by King Juan Carlos and the then Prime Minister, José María Aznar. During his 2023 visit, the Brazilian president and Sánchez discussed the negotiations for the EU-Mercosur trade agreement (which concluded successfully last January) and Brazil's proposal to create a "G20 for Peace" in Ukraine, an idea accepted by the Spanish president, but with "qualities": "There is an aggressor and a victim, and if we want a just and lasting peace, it is essential that the voice of the victim be heard." In addition to his meeting with Sánchez, Lula da Silva was received at the Royal Palace by King Felipe VI.

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