Senator Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) recently visited Spain to meet with officials and discuss the United States' relationship with the country, which has been tested by President Donald Trump and by ongoing tensions over debt payments.
"Spain has been with us since our revolution, and we talked about 250 years of independence, but it's actually been 250 years also of a great US-Spanish relationship, and we're certainly not going to let one person destroy that," Sen. Gallego told Spanish officials at the Elcano Royal Institute. "The fact that again we're causing more anxiety and more antagonism between friends and allies, it's really unnecessary."
Sen. Gallego disparaged President Donald Trump's threats to withdraw the American military presence from Spain as "the dumbest thing in the world for us to be able to give up access to these bases, because once we do that, we're never going to get them back," but did acknowledge the need for the Iberian country to live up to its 5% NATO defense spending.
The Arizona Senator further criticized the Iran conflict and alleged plans to invade Cuba.
Moreover, Gallego suggested that China could capitalize on the United States' removal of Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro, even if Maduro deserved to be toppled.
"The failure was the fact that we're using the US government to topple foreign governments," he explained. "Maduro was a horrible man, a very corrupt man, and was causing corruption all around the world… That does not give us license to go and topple these governments, because what stops China from saying the same thing about Taiwan or other nations?"
Gallego's visit coincides with ongoing tensions between the United States and Spain over Spain's refusal to pay debts owed to American companies contracted to build its green energy infrastructure.
As The Floridian reported, the Spanish government previously contracted NextEra and Blasket Renewable Investments for this purpose, but with the country backing out of this promise, it claims to be immune from paying the debt through the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA) despite the Supreme Court and other international courts holding that the debt must be honored.
