Obama Asks After Rajoy's Position Regarding Ukraine

President of the United States Barack Obama called the Spanish President Mariano Rajoy this Monday, March 10 at 8:30 p.m. Spanish time, to ask after his position regarding Ukraine. The two spoke for several minutes. Rajoy assured Obama that Spain maintains the same position on the matter as the rest of the EU members, which they agreed upon in the special summit held this past Thursday. However, the Spanish position is not exactly the same as that which the Germans or the Brits maintain, even though they all have arrived at a common understanding.

Spain clearly opposes the referendum for self-determination in Crimea, and even more so with their view toward Catalonia; but the Spanish position, despite being part of the EU, which is in favor of maintaining the territorial integrity of Ukraine, has always been closer to that of Russia than to the other EU countries.

Spain, for example, has never demonstrated throughout this entire process an opinion in favor of sanctions on Russia and instead has defended exhausting the means of dialogue, which is what Rajoy proposed this past week in La Moncloa to Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister. The different Spanish governments, including Rajoy’s, have maintained tight relations with Russia, with whom they share important economic interests. Spanish companies now aspire to win the contract for a high-speed train between Moscow and St. Petersburg, among other things, and the growing Russian investment in Spain is key for Rajoy. Obama had already spoken before about Ukraine with the presidents of Germany, the United Kingdom, France and Italy.

Obama took advantage of the conversation, occurring only hours before the anniversary of March 11, to deliver a message of solidarity to Rajoy from the United States toward victims of the attack. The United States always was very unsettled by the attack that was in some aspects similar to the 9/11 attack, and in 2004 Colin Powell, secretary of state for George Bush, turned up in Madrid to attend the state funeral for the victims.*

Both presidents, according to sources from La Moncloa, also reviewed their bilateral relations, which remain in a very good state after Rajoy was finally invited to the White House this past Jan. 13, where Obama highlighted Rajoy’s “leadership” and put his clear political support behind Rajoy’s economic reforms.

*Editor’s Note: March 11, 2004 was the date of the train bombings in Madrid that killed almost 200 people and wounded about 1,800 more.