Sánchez snubs Trump at the UN for "agenda reasons"

BarcelonaPedro Sánchez snubs Donald Trump. The Spanish president will not attend the reception this Tuesday that his American counterpart is offering in New York for the start of the UN General Assembly. Moncloa sources cited by the Efe agency have alleged "scheduling reasons," although right now the socialist leader has nothing scheduled on his agenda that coincides with the reception. The decision comes amidst a climate of tension between Spain and the US – Trump even went as far as threatening in July to cut off trade with Spain– and at a time when Sánchez is seeking to establish himself as the antithesis of Trump on an international scale.

Sánchez's trip to New York, with which he seeks to take the opportunity to shift the focus currently centered on the crisis in Ceuta, is intended to champion his discourse against techno-oligarchs and the far-right and in defense of multilateralism. "Spain has a firm commitment to multilateralism" in the face of "attempts to dismantle the rules-based order," he argued a few hours ago at the Partners for Multilateralism (P4M) summit, organized by the President of the European Council, António Costa, with the leaders of Canada and Kenya.

In the last few hours, he has also met personally with António Guterres, who this year ends his term as UN Secretary-General after a mandate marked by tensions with Trump. The Spanish president, in this sense, wanted to congratulate him for his work in the current context of "fragmentation" and questioning of international institutions: "Your effort has made it possible to preserve the central role of the UN as the main space for dialogue, commitment, and the search for shared solutions to global challenges," he wrote on X.

Sánchez, who will indeed attend Trump's speech at the opening of the General Assembly, did not attend the reception offered by the US president last year, because it was King Felipe VI who led the Spanish delegation. He was also not present at the 2024 one, when the host was President Joe Biden, but in this case because it coincided with his speech before the General Assembly.

The first two years that Sánchez traveled to New York as president, in 2018 and 2019, he did attend the receptions offered by Trump with his wife, Begoña Gómez, while in 2020 and 2021 there were none due to the pandemic. He was also present at those offered by Biden in September 2022 and 2023, according to Efe.

Beyond the meeting at the United Nations, Sánchez has other events this Tuesday in New York, where he has traveled alongside his third vice president, Sara Aagesen, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares. Throughout the day, he is scheduled to meet with the British Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, and also to attend a tribute to the writer and journalist Gloria Steinem, a feminist icon who passed away at the beginning of September.

Additionally, he will also go to an event on the protection of childhood against AI – the day after he has presented his plan for the regulation of artificial intelligence– and another on the defense of the UN's sustainable development goals, two topics on which he also confronts Donald Trump.