A great present and a promising future
It is an honor and a great pleasure to address the readers of these pages, which we hope will contribute to furthering knowledge about my country within this great nation, on the occasion of the Year of Spain in China.
I am quite sure that 2007 will indeed be an important year for both nations, and that by getting to know each other better we shall advance towards a new and prosperous future.
Today we are experiencing an excellent situation in our bilateral relations. This is what my government's president Jos Luis Rodrguez Zapatero's visit to China, one of his first international journeys, as well as Chinese President Hu Jintao's visit to Spain in 2005, have proven.
The result of these visits has been the Joint Declaration in which both countries recognize themselves as strategic associates.
Since then, practically all ministers of the Spanish Government, including myself last April, have had the pleasure to visit China, each time achieving extraordinarily positive results.
The year of 2007 should be an opportunity to get to know each other better, and to show our social, political, economical, cultural and scientific reality, which has recently positioned Spain among the most dynamic and innovative nations in Europe.
During the past quarter of a century, our societies' effort, our will for modernization, our creativity and dynamism have put us in leadership positions.
Today, China is the fourth global economic power and Spain the eighth. We have got a great present and a promising future.
This great country is already a key player not only in the world economic context but also in international affairs.
Spain has equally experienced an enormous transformation.
During the past thirty years since the approval of the Constitution in 1978, we Spanish have transformed our country and have constructed a dynamic, modern nation with a solid and respected democracy, completely integrated into the European Union and with a new, enhanced prominence in the international sphere.
We have been enjoying sustained economic growth for the past decade, with a growth rate superior to the European average.
On a similar note, Spain enjoys privileged relations with Latin America, both in terms of our history and culture, and in terms of economic relations. We are the second largest investors in this area, which has tremendous economic potential, and also the principal gateway for trade between Latin America and Europe.
There is more that unites than what separates our two countries. We are two economies growing at a good pace, two countries whose voices are heard, whose position counts on the international stage. We invest in pacific exchange, multilateral cooperation and in an economic growth model in which competitiveness, sustainability and social development prevail.
We are two peoples with historical bonds, who are meeting again today, at the beginning of the 21st century, and who are called upon to assume the responsibility to answer to the challenges and opportunities that globalization offers us.
We are two peoples with a rich history and tradition, with solid values, who have known how to combine opening-up with progress, with our glance always toward the future, but without renouncing the sweetest memories of our past.
We are two dynamic and affable societies with a will to work and prosper but also a desire to enjoy the growing levels of wellbeing that we are both experiencing.
In this changing world, at this start of an era, and before the challenges and opportunities offered by the present and perceptible in the future, our countries are reencountering each other as leaders, in a situation of undoubted import in the international sphere.
In consequence, we should jointly take the initiative to provide responses to the demands arising in this new century. Such challenges and opportunities require harmonized responses, and the present-day reality of our two countries and our prospects for the future are powerful reasons for further strengthening our cooperation.
The celebration this year of the Year of Spain in China is an appropriate occasion to boost this reencounter between our countries, on the path created by our history, our present, our future and, most of all, our shared will to meet again and work together for the progress of our peoples.
In the global context, Spain and China constitute two essential gateways. Due to our weight in the global economy, the value of our cultures and our international presence, our countries play a key role both in generating material and cultural wealth and in maintaining balance in the world.
For all these reasons, I am convinced that strengthening and intensifying our relations is a pathway towards the future, and I was able to see this for myself when I had the pleasure of visiting China last April.
Many things are going to happen - they are already happening - during the celebration of this Year. Shortly, the King and the Queen of Spain will arrive in this great country to reaffirm, with their presence, our offer of friendship, dialogue and collaboration at the highest level.
(China Daily 06/27/2007 page25)
