Could Spain’s ‘compliment sandwich’ approach to China work for the EU?

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s diplomatic balancing act during his visit to China last month marked a sharp contrast with a European Union grappling with geopolitical upheaval and economic stagnation.Sanchez pushed for closer ties with Beijing while raising concerns over a persistent bilateral trade deficit and the Ukraine war, an approach that analysts said could serve as a diplomatic template for Brussels amid its fraying relationship with Washington.According to Wang Hanyi, a research fellow at the Shanghai International Studies University, the Spanish leader “achieved a delicate equilibrium between high-level strategic rhetoric and pragmatic cooperation”.