'Healthy, solid and positive' relations sought with China, ambassador says

Spain would like to work with China in defending an open world in which multilateralism is respected and countries open up their markets to increase trade and cooperation, said the Spanish Ambassador to China Rafael Dezcallar.

Protectionism has always brought economic barriers as well as political difficulties, and we want to fight against protectionism, he said.

Spain has an economy that is based on exports, he said, one of the most open economies in the European Union and absolutely committed to keeping the multilateral system functioning.

China has become a major economic power after four decades of reform and opening-up, and the world is changing through the changes in China, Dezcallar said.

"What we have to do is to establish healthy, solid and positive relations with China," he said.

President Xi Jinping's three-day state visit to Spain, which started on Tuesday, will underline and intensify the close relations between China and Spain, and a number of agreements are expected to come out of the visit, Dezcallar said.

"It is important because it marks the first state visit to Spain by a Chinese head of state in 13 years", he said, adding that bilateral ties have entered a new stage.

The diplomat said that Spain welcomes the Belt and Road Initiative and is willing to cooperate with China.

"We are happy to be able to find and identify concrete projects in which Spanish and Chinese firms can work together, and to develop them on the basis of internationally agreed principles," Dezcallar said.

China is Spain's largest trading partner outside the EU while Spain is the sixth-largest trading partner in the EU for China. Bilateral trade volume reached $30.94 billion in 2017, up by 7.5 percent year-on-year.

Both countries have advantages in their strengths and experiences in infrastructure construction, he said.

Dezcallar called the China-Europe freight train from Yiwu, Zhejiang province, to Madrid an alternative route to maritime freight.

The 13,000-kilometer Yiwu-Madrid railway is the longest rail link from China to the EU. Trains take about three weeks to complete the journey. It is an early achievement of the Belt and Road Initiative, which serves as a bridge linking Asia and the Europe.

Dezcallar said the railway's infrastructure could be improved to promote trade with countries along the route.

China and Spain could cooperate in high technology sectors like new materials and renewable energy, he said.

The two countries also could make use of their advantages to cooperate in third-party markets in Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, the Mediterranean and other EU countries, he said.

The ambassador added that services are an important example of bilateral cooperation. Spain is a country with a developed services industry, and China has a rising middle class that needs more services. Spain can cooperate with China in this field, he said.

In November, a Spanish delegation that included over 50 companies attended the China International Import Expo. Dezcallar said he found the expo "very interesting and positive".

It's a sign of China's efforts to open its market to the world, he said, adding that trade imbalances still exist between the two countries and more efforts could be undertaken to improve the situation.

Spain welcomes Chinese investment and is willing to invest more in China, he said. "I think we can do better. It is important to finish the negotiation for the China-EU investment agreement."

The investment deal will promote two-way openingup and equality between the Chinese and EU markets, and improve the mutual trade and investment scales of the two sides.

China and the EU should work on the agreement to reduce tariff and nontariff barriers to promote trade and openness, he added.

In terms of people-to-people exchanges, Dezcallar said education and tourism will be his focus for promoting understanding between people from the two countries.

Cooperation is not just about trade, but also about understanding each other's culture, he said.