Spanish PM to arrive today, inaugurate aircraft facility with PM Modi

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez will be on a three-day visit to India from October 27 during which he will hold delegation level talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The two leaders will inaugurate the Final Assembly Line Plant of C295 aircraft at Vadodara, a flagship "Make in India" initiative in aviation sector, which is being set up by Tata Advanced Systems in collaboration with Airbus Spain.

This is first visit of Prime Minister Sanchez to India. The visit of the Prime Minister of Spain is taking place after 18 years. Earlier, Prime Minister Modi and PM Sanchez have met several times on the sidelines of multilateral meetings, a MEA release said.

Prime Minister Sanchez will also visit Mumbai where, apart from official engagements, he will interact with trade and industry leaders, think tanks and the film industry.

He will address the 4th Spain India Forum organized by the Spain-India Council Foundation and the Observer Research Foundation. He will visit prominent film studios where he will interact with leading celebrities of Indian movie industries, with the aim of fostering greater collaboration between the Indian and Spanish media and entertainment industry.

A number of MoUs/ Agreements are expected to be signed during the visit which shall give a fillip to bilateral cooperation.

India and Spain enjoy close and friendly relations.

The bilateral ties got a fresh impetus after Prime Minister Modi visited Spain in 2017.

The release said that Prime Minister Sanchez's visit will be an opportunity to review the entire gamut of our bilateral relations and further deepen the partnership across various sectors including trade and investment, IT, innovation, infrastructure, renewable energy, defence and security, pharma, agro-tech and bio-tech, culture and tourism.

India and Spain established diplomatic relations in 1956 and the two countries have maintained cordial relations.

Spain is a constitutional monarchy with King Felipe VI as the current Head of State.  Pedro Sanchez is the leader of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE). The last visit to India by a Spanish President took place in 2006 when President Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero visited India. King Juan Carlos I visited India in 2012 on a state visit.

PM Modi and PM Sanchez have previously held meetings at the G20 summit in Buenos Aires in 2018 and in Rome in 2021. PM Modi and President Sanchez spoke on the telephone in February last year.

The trade relations between the two countries are robust and growing. Bilateral trade stood at $9.9 billion in 2023, with India exporting $7.17 billion and importing $2.74 billion.

Spain is the 16th largest investor in India with cumulative FDI stock of $4.2 billion (April 2000- June 2024).

There are more than 230 Spanish companies active in India and around 80 Indian companies in Spain.

The Indian diaspora in Spain is 75000 strong, and is concentrated in Catalonia, Valencia, Madrid, and the Canary Islands. The Consulate General of India, Barcelona has been operationalized while Spain plans to open its consulate in Bengaluru in the near future.

The visit underscores the importance attached by both countries to their bilateral partnership and the consistent upward trajectory of India-Spain relations in trade, investment, defence cooperation, education, technology, tourism, culture, and people-to-people ties.