Pedro Sánchez takes up the international agenda at the start of a new complicated course in internal policy with a trip to London, where he will meet on Wednesday with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. The photo at number 10 of Downing Street has, beyond the symbolic importance of two of the few progressive leaders who remain in Europe, diplomatic relevance after the agreement on Gibraltar that the two governments – and Brussels – reached last June. That is one of the milestones that has facilitated the appointment, organized to the millimeter by the British, and that will culminate with a business forum from which both countries expect to take a slice, especially in sectors such as defense, cybersecurity or telecommunications.
Sharing Frontera, which from 2026 will cease to have a physical wall with the elimination of the gate, and the disagreements it has meant after Brexit, with the prolongation of negotiations on Gibraltar for five years, have not prevented economic and commercial relations from having been fruitful. The United Kingdom is the fifth destination of Spanish exports of goods and the ninth import supplier. Last year, Spain exported goods worth 23.8 billion euros and imports were 10,000 million. Spain is the second service provider in the United Kingdom, only behind the United States.
The agreement that the leaders will sign aims to “structure” the relationship between the two countries after Brexit: the disagreement about Gibraltar was a stumbling block so far to take that step. This new “strategic alliance” will formalize the ties so that the Foreign Ministers will have to meet at least once a year to analyze relationships. Among the issues that will be addressed is tourism, which is one of the main attractions of the relationship (20% of the tourism that Spain receives is British).
Journey with entrepreneurs
In addition, Sánchez and Starmer will participate, together with the Ministers of Economics, in a business forum with the presence of the executives of the main multinationals of the two countries (such as Aena, Navantia, Indra, Iberdrola, Telefónica or Banco Santander, by the Spanish part; and Astrazeneca, BP, Octopus Energy or Barclays, among others, by the British) “Germ” of a future business advisory committee. In some sectors, such as banking, energy or telecommunications, there are already traditional synergies between the companies of the two countries and the claim of the Spanish Executive is to expand them to new areas.
And there the arms race to which European countries and NATO have been launched with commitments to shoot the defense expenditure. Spain has already reached 2% of GDP in military spending, according to the latest estimates of the transatlantic organization, and the United Kingdom has exceeded 2.4%.
Within the framework of the conversation between the governments of Spain and the United Kingdom is the creation of defensive consortiums at a time when the EU Rearme Plan includes loans for the projects in which several European countries participate. “When the President of the Government speaks of national or European preference (for the new defense projects), the United Kingdom is included,” government sources say, which suggest that the European Commission is working on the development of its proposal to accommodate the partners who are not part of the community club.
British expenditure in defense
The British budget, very adjusted by the fiscal hole that drags the country from the previous conservative government, plans to reach 2.5% of the GDP defense in 2027, but the new way of classifying as defense other security expenses, infrastructure and civil protection, for example, in energy, transport and border control, makes the Executive estimate that the expense in that new more generic concept of security arrives up to 4.1% for that year.
In June, Starmer signed the political commitment signed by all NATO allies – to the exception of Sánchez, which achieved a kind of exception clause – to reach 5% of GDP in that new broader concept of security by 2035, that is, at the end of the next legislature and with the government that leaves the general elections planned for 2029. Starmer, which turned this Tuesday 63 years. Present, although now it is difficult The first in the intention of vote in the surveys is going.
In any case, one of the priorities of the Labor Government to try to relaunch the anemic British economy is to increase public spending also with security and defense projects. Starmer says that defense spending “will be noticed directly in pockets of the working class ” And often puts examples of “stable” jobs in local plants, such as that of the British Aerospace multinational British Bae, but part of the new contracts will also go to European companies.
In fact, according to The data recently published by the Office in charge of public contracts of the Ministry of Defense British, contracts granted to non -British companies are usually more large than local companies. Between July 2024 and July of this year, the contracts of that ministry for companies outside the country were 23% higher than those granted to British companies, although these remain the main receivers (they obtained 1,244 contracts against the 174 of non -British companies).
In some cases, the Spanish experience in the Ferrocaril or the construction is scarce in the United Kingdom. One of the most relevant Spanish investments for the country has been this year that of Navantia, the Spanish public company of civil and military naval construction that has bought the Harland & Wolff shipyards of Belfast, in Northern Ireland, where the Titanic was built, and that they were now on the verge of bankruptcy. The Spanish company has bought the British for some 112 million eurosbut the agreement also includes British Navy contracts.
Start again
Defense is also one of the areas in which Brussels has focused its efforts within the framework of the “reset” of relations with the United Kingdom that continues to try Starmer five years after the official departure of his country from the European Union. Since then, his government has signed with the EU political commitments to lighten the controls on the borders for some goods, but still, for example, has not agreed more facilities for the trips of studies or work of the young people or the tours of the musicians, who were among the minimum promises. The main advance has been in cooperation before international crises given the military and diplomatic weight that the United Kingdom still has, the only nuclear potential with France in Europe.
Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, also focused on relations on migration, an issue in which she has turned, like European governments, towards the toughest positions dragged by the rise of the extreme right. The British government has also hardened its policies, with restrictions for refugees, while the public debate is increasingly dominated by the Xenophobic Agenda of Farage, as he himself presumes.
However, that is an issue in which Sanchez will not enter, despite the fact that his position is opposed to the direction that London is taking and that he resembles the hardening that has gained ground in the EU. Neither in Madrid nor in London they want anything to tarnish an appointment that began to set in July 2024. Then there was the first formal meeting between both leaders, during the meeting of the European political community that was held at the Blenheim Palace, in the village of Woodstock, with Starmer as host a few days after his electoral victory. A few days before, Sánchez was also with Starmer in the Eurocup final held in Berlin and won Spain against England.
After the Summit of Blenheim, the Spanish Government said that the agreement on Gibraltar was closer and assumed that the arrival of a Labor to power would facilitate it. Eleven months later, the pact came true, although the small print is yet to write and the government does not intend to put that issue on the table on Sánchez's first visit to Downing Street since he arrived in Moncloa.
