Madrid, July 12 (EFE).- Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez will attend France’s Bastille Day celebrations in Paris at the invitation of President Emmanuel Macron, despite Spain not having completed the ratification of the bilateral Friendship Treaty signed by the two countries in 2023.
Sánchez will watch the traditional 14 July national holiday military parade along the Champs-Élysées.
Later that day, he will take part in a meeting in Paris of leaders from the Coalition of the Willing for Ukraine.
Macron has said the gathering aims to strengthen military support for Kyiv through new initiatives in defense, security and the defense industry.
France has also invited military delegations from the approximately 30 countries that make up the coalition, led by France and the United Kingdom, to participate in the Bastille Day parade.
First attendance in nearly two decades
Sánchez’s appearance will mark the first time in 19 years that a Spanish prime minister has attended France’s National Day celebrations.
The last Spanish premier to attend was José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero in 2007, when he accepted an invitation from then-French President Nicolas Sarkozy after participating in a Euro-Mediterranean summit in Paris the previous day.
Sánchez and Macron are also due to meet just hours before Spain and France face each other in a FIFA World Cup semifinal.
The visit comes days after Spain’s Senate blocked the completion of the ratification process for the bilateral Friendship Treaty, an agreement both governments consider strategically important.
The treaty was signed during the most recent Spain-France bilateral summit, held in Barcelona on Jan. 19, 2023, and chaired by Sánchez and Macron.
Although the two countries normally hold annual bilateral summits, none has taken place since then. Both governments deny that the delay is linked to Spain’s failure to ratify the treaty.
The agreement must be ratified by the parliaments of both countries. France has already completed the process, while Spain has not because of opposition from the conservative Popular Party (PP) and the far-right Vox party. EFE
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