A return journey with billions... of grains of sand

The humility that is the trademark of President Pedro Sánchez and the echoes of the recent approval of the important Labour Reform Law - which is already the envy of the European Union and the rest of the world - have prevented the triumphant trip of the head of the PSOE-Unidas Podemos coalition government to the United Arab Emirates from having the national significance it deserves.

Fortunately, the international repercussions of the Spanish president's visit to Expo Dubai and his meeting with the prime minister and emir of Dubai, Mohamed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, and the crown prince of Abu Dhabi, Mohamed bin Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahyan, have had great relevance. So much so that it has forced Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin to take a break from their tenuous disagreements over Ukraine and devote their full attention to the important achievements made by the Spaniard.

The commitments made by the head of the Spanish government during his whirlwind visit to the young Gulf country on its 50th anniversary sought to "relaunch" the relationship between the two countries and "expand" the areas of cooperation, objectives that, according to the president himself, "we have fulfilled". 

Pedro Sánchez's achievement eclipses the glory achieved at the end of 2021 by the President of the French Republic during his also quick stay in the Emirates. Emmanuel Macron made a fleeting trip to the Emirates on 2 December to preside over France's National Day at the Dubai Expo, where he was accompanied by his foreign and defence ministers, Jean-Yves Le Drian and Florence Parly, respectively, and a long string of French defence and aerospace industry leaders.

Diplomacy in Paris had organised the trip in order to endorse the sale of 80 fighter jets, 38 helicopters and hundreds of missiles of all types and conditions. Having achieved his objectives, Macron left the Emirates with a firm order book for French industry worth more than 16 billion euros.

Spain's Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, has not wanted to be less than his northern neighbour. He arrived in the Emirates on 2 February - exactly two months after Macron - to attend Spain's National Day at Expo Dubai. And if Macron went with two ministers and a large delegation from his business world, then the tenant of the Moncloa did the same and a little more.

The presidential entourage included the Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation, José Manuel Albares, and the Minister of Industry, Trade and Tourism, Reyes Maroto. Alongside them were the presidents of the Spanish Confederation of Business Organisations (CEOE), Antonio Garamendi, and of the Spanish Chamber of Commerce, José Luis Bonet.

They were joined by a large group of senior executives from a wide range of Spanish construction, engineering, transport, healthcare, hotel, aerospace and defence companies, such as Acciona, Airbus España, Alsa, Asisa, Barceló, Constructora San José, Escribano Mechanical & Engineering, Duro Felguera, Grupo Oesia/Tecnobit, Indra, Isdefe, Técnicas Reunidas and TSK. All of them have had the opportunity to hold talks with Emirati companies.

On the next occasion, the government-government agreements of great importance, which neither the previous Foreign Minister, Arancha González Laya, nor the Secretary of State for Trade, Xiana Méndez, were able to agree on during their previous trips, have been left for the next occasion. So the Spanish Air Force plane left the Emirates for Madrid with a Pedro Sánchez with his hands and pockets full of billions of... grains of sand.

As a consolation prize, the Spanish president's brief stay in the Gulf country has served for the foreign and industry ministers to sign a significant number of agreements with their Emirati counterparts. And, above all, Pedro Sánchez and the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, Mohamed bin Zayed, signed a joint declaration.

A communiqué from the Moncloa Palace describes the agreement as "of broad political and economic significance", as it establishes that Spain and the Emirates are creating "a strategic partnership". Its aim is to encourage and expand cooperation in aerospace, defence and security, information and communication technologies, tourism, agro-technology, waste treatment and the development of green hydrogen as a source of energy, "priority" sectors in which cooperation can take place "immediately", says Sánchez. We shall see.

A curiosity. The Prime Minister's visit to the Emirates has served to bring out his hidden devotion to deserts. In an interview he gave to Expo Dubai television, Pedro Sánchez declared that during his tour of the Emirates pavilion he had been "impressed by the desert sand (...) a blessing that the country has". Not fully satisfied, he expanded his statement by assuring that "I would love to visit the desert with my family". I omit any comment from my side.