Obama to visit Spain between 9 and 11 in July
The US president Barack Obama, will make an official visit to Spain between 9 adn 11 July, the White House announced on Monday. This will be the first time in 15 years that an American president has visited while in office.
His agenda will include meetings with King Felipe VI, who invited Obama to visit Spain, and with acting prime minister Mariano Rajoy. For security reasons it has not yet been announced where these meetings will take place.
The visit aims to highlight the importance of Spain to the US as a defence ally, the aspect of the two countries' relationship that most interests Washington, and which is most advanced, said diplomatic sources.
Obama will come to Spain from the NATO summit in Poland (8 and 9 July). In recent years both the US bases in Spain, in Rota and Morón de la Frontera, have been used in defence projects piloted by the US. Since the end of 2015, Rota (Cadiz) has hosted four American destroyers that form part of the NATO anti-missile shield. Morón de la Frontera (Seville) has become a permanent base for the US marine rapid crisis response force for Africa.
For several years the Spanish government has been negotiating a visit from the president of the United States as a gesture of recognition for the implication of Spain in these two projects. The visit finally comes just before the start of the US presidential election campaign.source surinenglish
