611 Georgina Higueras Spain-China, ten years of strategic partnership Enrique Barón, one of the first members of González’ government to visit China, claims that what Beijing was aiming for when it made Spain a global strategic partner was to “be granted market economy status in the WTM and the lifting of the arms embargo by the EU”.33 The Hispanic-Chinese rapprochement prompted Spain, during its presidency of the Council in the first half of 2010, to make another attempt to have the embargo included in the agenda. Despite enormous pressure from Washington, Spain agreed to take the matter to the European Council. In February 2010, Godement insinuated that the reason Barack Obama was not going to attend the US-EU Summit, due to be held in May, was that Spain’s Foreign Minister, Miguel Ángel Moratinos, was trying to have the end of the arms embargo put on the agenda of the EU summit to be held later that year. According to Godement, Moratinos’ endeavours reflected “China’s priorities”.34 Spain persisted in its attempts up to three days before the summit, until it became obvious that the US had once again won the battle, causing a rift, mistrust and confrontation between the Member States. The embargo has virtually become a showdown between Washington and China. For Beijing, which is supplied with arms by Russia, the Ukraine and Israel, it is more a question of shame, and even anger at the EU and its Member States at being treated the same way as Burma, Sudan and Zimbabwe”,35 countries that have arms embargoes with Brussels. The showdown is clearly evident from the Department of State cables compiled by WikiLeaks. Of particular interest are those that refer to Washington’s request to the EU embassies to prevent Spain, during its presidency of the EU, from having the lifting of the arms embargo placed on the EU agenda. In this regard, cable number 249230, dated 17 February 2010, states: This is an action request for all Embassies in EU countries to reiterate our position that the EU should retain its arms embargo on China… We continue to believe that lifting the embargo is not warranted, on either human rights or security grounds… We refer you to the Department of Defense’s annual PLA Military Power Report, which highlights the 33 BARÓN, Enrique: Interview conducted by email on 11 July 2014. When speaking about the pressure exerted by the U.S., the former minister and European Parliament President declared that “there is growing concern about the arms race in the Far East and the role of China as a regional power, without there being any change to the regional security and defence framework”. 34 GODEMENT, François: “Again, the China arms embargo issue”, European Council on Foreign Relations, 03/02/2010. 35 LI Wang: “From Client Status to Strategic Partnership: China’s changing perceptions of Europe” in VOGT, Roland: Europe & China Strategic Partners or Rivals? Hong Kong University Press, 2012, pp. 81-93. http://revista.ieee.es/index.php/ieee
REVISTA IEEE 5
To see the actual publication please follow the link above