Rajoy and Trump speak for first time: US President elect expresses his 'enormous affection' for Spanish people
Wednesday, December 14, 2016 @ 9:53 AM
SPANISH president Mariano Rajoy and US president elect Donald Trump spoke to each other on the telephone for the first time this week, and the future 'Brexit' formed part of their conversation.
Both leaders pledged to maintain the 'close level of confidence' in the two countries' bilateral relations, and Rajoy recalled that the USA is 'a very important ally and partner' for Spain, since they 'share the same values and challenges'.
During their 20-minute chat on Monday evening, the two presidents analysed various issues of international politics, with special emphasis on security and defence – in particular the global fight against Jihad terrorism, since Spain and the USA are part of the international coalition involved in attempting to wipe out the fundamentalist threat.
Trump and Rajoy 'exchanged points of view' over 'the consequences of Brexit' – although little has been revealed about the finer details of their talk, so it is not known what they said about the UK's move to leave the European Union.
This said, Rajoy has already expressed his disappointment with the referendum result producing a majority – albeit a very slim one – in favour of leaving the EU, and told British prime minister Theresa May recently that he was concerned UK citizens living in Spain did not suffer as a result.
Rajoy and Trump are said to have discussed 'the global financial situation', and Spain's leader told the US president elect that he was 'convinced' of the need to push for 'intense and sustained economic growth' in Europe in order to allow jobs to be created and the ever-widening gap between rich and poor to be sewn up.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com