BEIJING — Chinese President Xi Jinping and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez met at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Tuesday, pledging to strengthen relations between China and Spain and to work to safeguard multilateralism. The visit was Sánchez's fourth trip to China in just over three years.

Spain intends to strengthen its political and commercial ties with Beijing, and one of the goals of Sánchez's trip is to find ways to reduce the trade gap with China. The two countries will sign 19 agreements, ten of which will be economic in nature. Some of the agreements will expand access for Spanish agrifood products in China and boost exports.

"We should strengthen communication, consolidate mutual trust, cooperate closely, oppose the world's retrogression to the law of the jungle, and jointly safeguard genuine multilateralism," Xi said during the meeting.

Sánchez said that Xi showed understanding and willingness to work to reduce the trade imbalance between Spain and China. He said the trade imbalance between Europe and China, and between Spain and China, is excessive and must be corrected, adding that China must see Spain and Europe as places to invest.

Sánchez also urged China to do more on the diplomatic front. "I find it very difficult to find other interlocutors, beyond China, who can resolve this situation in Iran and the Strait of Hormuz," he said.

"There is also an absolutely illegal response from the Iranian regime regarding a war that we have described from the very beginning as a mistake and an illegality," Sánchez said. He said that Spain wants to avoid impunity for those who commit crimes in places such as Gaza, that a genocide has been committed in Gaza, and that international law is being violated today, fundamentally by the government of Israel.