Now, Joe Biden will not appear with Pedro Sánchez before the press: he will leave the responsibility of writing the statement about the meeting with a photo in the oval office to the communication services of his office, for which the Spanish president has been working for years.

Diplomatic sources try to downplay this circumstance since there is no agreement signing ceremony.. despite the fact that Sánchez's team is working on files as diverse as innovation, semiconductors, the climate emergency, energy, food safety and even an aerospace agreement, a field in which Moncloa sources trust they can confirm a very powerful announcement that will involve the new Spanish Space Agency, based in Seville.

“It is very exceptional that there is a joint press conference with the president of the US, I would not give it importance,” explains a senior diplomat, in conversation with EL ESPAÑOL. The truth is that it is not usual for Biden to grant that other photo.

In the past, Felipe González was accompanied at a press conference before the media by both Ronald Reagan and George H. IN. Bush -who was united by a great friendship-. The one who did it the most was, without a doubt, José María Aznar, who appeared jointly with Bush Jr.. on various occasions, including invited to Crawford's ranch. And even Donald Trump shared microphones in the White House gardens with Mariano Rajoy, in September 2017.

The current US president, for the moment, has lavished less on this diplomatic gesture with his guests: Emmanuel Macron, Ursula von der Leyen, Volodimir Zelenski…. they did have their joint press conference. Olaf Scholz, last March, was not pleased, in full controversy over the delivery of tanks to Ukraine.

And that, precisely in the matter of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Spanish president is one of the best and most faithful allies of the US president. The Spanish position, even before the start of the war, has built mutual trust that crystallized in the joint declaration that both presidents signed last June in Moncloa.

“There are many months of work, which will crystallize on this trip,” Moncloa sources point out. Maybe even years…. or decades, if we look at the negotiation that “will be resumed shortly” on the contaminated lands of Palomares. It is true that they say it with a little more hope than with reliable evidence, since Sánchez travels to Washington without new closed agreements, among the many that are being worked on..

A couple of weeks ago it was learned that Spain was promoting a very innovative immigration agreement with the US and Canada: our country will accept part of the migrants and asylum seekers that the US cannot or does not want to accept. And for a year the increase of 50% in the presence of US troops at the Rota base was being negotiated, which finally crystallized in the signing of the agreement last Monday.

[From the embrace of the Azores to the embarrassed president and the aggrieved flag: Spain and the leaders of the USA]

Now, José Manuel Albares has gone to Washington in advance to finish preparing the trip, as explained in the surroundings of the Spanish president. This same Wednesday, he signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to add Spain to the Global Equality Fund, which invests “hundreds of millions around the world in public-private collaboration to defend the rights of LGTBQI people”, in the words of Antony Blinken, “grateful” for the union of Spain to this initiative.

Diplomatic sources point out the strangeness of this trip by the Foreign Minister – “a technician, a high-ranking official is usually sent…. but a minister?”-, and they agree that it may have to do with the fact that the negotiations of the agreements need political impetus, and that the minister “is a good friend of Blinken…. and the prestigious photos”.

But above all, with the fact that Sánchez's visit to the White House is more advertising than content. “They have looked for a date for him,” explains a diplomat in conversation with this newspaper, “and the Americans know that he has fallen two weeks before an election, it is a boost for Pedro Sánchez.”

years of work

The history of relations between the PSOE that he leads and Biden's team is long and begins long before the current occupant of the White House avoided Trump's re-election, in November 2020..

The current Minister of Industry and Tourism, Héctor Gómez, was then an almost unknown Secretary of International Relations of the Socialist Executive. And already then, with Sánchez in the opposition, he commissioned him to strengthen relations with the Democratic Party, lest it be that… and he was right.

Later, the current Foreign Minister took over, who has managed to build a good personal relationship with Blinken, his counterpart as Secretary of State in Washington.

Gestures -rather, it should be said efforts and successes- such as quickly organizing logistics for the scale and distribution of evacuees at the Torrejón and Rota bases during the days of the precipitous withdrawal of the US -and the rest of the Western troops- from Afghanistan, in the summer of 2021; or the close collaboration with the American discourse since the beginning of the crisis -and after the Russian war- against Ukraine, were sowing seeds of confidence.

And it all germinated at the NATO summit in June 2022 in Madrid. The organizational success was accompanied by the diplomatic one, because the US and the rest of the allies met the Spanish demands: umbrellas for Ceuta and Melilla, and a complete chapter for the southern flank of the Alliance in the new Strategic Concept.

Spain is an essential partner, the gateway to the Mediterranean, and the only European country with land borders in Africa, where both Russia and China have been taking positions for years. This was repeatedly highlighted by Blinken, at a joint press conference with Albares: “Spain's collaboration and commitment to Ukraine has been invaluable and is unwavering,” remarked the US Secretary of State.

Moncloa has known how to play these cards better than some previous governments. Undoubtedly, much better than that of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero -during whose presidency all the confidence built in the Aznar years was lost- and that of Rajoy.

Although if the record in international relations of the Galician promised little at first – and he never had time to contradict those forecasts, immersed in the reconstruction of a Spain (almost) bankrupt and, consequently, turned into “the greatest concern” in Europe – , he did achieve Trump's support against the Catalan independence challenge: “It would be foolish for the people of Catalonia not to stay in Spain,” he proclaimed together with the Spanish president, in September 2017.

Despite hosting five members of Unidas Podemos in its Council of Ministers -who row against its foreign policy- and the stumbling blocks at the beginning -the 20-second paseíllo in Brussels-, one cannot speak of opportunism or coincidence. It has been a long-term vision and the hard work of his team that has led Sánchez to sit in front of the most famous fireplace in the world, the one that frames the appointments with foreign leaders.. those who are not granted the other photo.