Mexico - June 2026

On 28 April, Spain’s Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares arrived in Mexico City (CDMX) for a two-day visit to consolidate growing ties between the governments of Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum and Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez. In recent years, relations between the two countries have been defined by a diplomatic dispute over the legacy of Spanish colonial rule in Mexico. In recent months, changing geopolitical headwinds and a growing affinity between the countries’ political leaderships have given rise to a carefully managed process of normalisation in bilateral relations, to which Albares’ visit paid testament.

Albares began by meeting business leaders at the Spanish chamber of commerce in Mexico, before holding talks the following day with his Mexican counterpart, the newly appointed foreign minister, Roberto Velasco [SSR-26-05]. In a joint press conference, Velasco and Albares shared the stage, with Mexico’s top diplomat hailing a “new era” in bilateral relations. That same day, Albares was received by President Sheinbaum at the national palace for a meeting that took place outside the official agenda, in another sign of the two countries’ growing realignment.

The Spanish envoy’s visit takes place amid a context of heightened global uncertainty that has prompted efforts to repair bilateral relations that had come under significant strain in recent years. The diplomatic fissures first emerged out of a dispute between Mexico’s former president Andrés Manuel López Obrador (2018-2024) and King Felipe VI of Spain when, in 2019, López Obrador sent a letter to the Spanish monarch requesting an apology for the historic abuses committed by the Spanish during the colonial era, to which the King failed to respond. The rebuff set in motion a period of deteriorating bilateral relations, culminating in February 2022 when López Obrador announced a “pause” in the relationship, citing exploitative practices by Spanish companies in Mexico. Tensions continued to simmer into 2024, when the newly elected Sheinbaum, a protégée and ally of Lopez Obrador, declined to invite King Felipe to her inauguration, leading Spanish representatives to boycott the ceremony altogether.

During her first 18 months in office, however, Sheinbaum has overseen a steady thaw in Spain-Mexico relations, evident in the warm reception Albares received during his recent visit. The opening for rapprochement came in October 2025, when, at the inauguration of an exhibition in Madrid honouring the indigenous women of Mexico, Albares spoke to the “pain and injustice” inflicted on indigenous Mexicans during Spanish colonial rule. This paved the way for King Felipe’s visit to the same exhibition in March, where the monarch acknowledged “there was a lot of abuse” during the colonial era, in an unprecedented admission of historical responsibility by the Spanish crown. Sheinbaum, in turn, recognised the King’s move as a meaningful “gesture of rapprochement”, while noting that “it was not everything we would have wanted”.

The growing realignment between Spain and Mexico is in many ways a natural outgrowth of the political proximity of their respective leaders. Both Sheinbaum and Sánchez are prominent figures on the world stage who position themselves as defenders of progressive multilateralism and a humanitarian foreign policy. Both have also faced pressure from the administration of US President Donald Trump, whether over migration and security concerns in Mexico’s case or Spain’s strong opposition to the US-Israeli war in the Middle East. Their common front in the face of these challenges was formally on display at the En Defensa de la Democracia (In Defence of Democracy) summit in Barcelona in April, where Sánchez hosted progressive world leaders including Sheinbaum, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil and Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro. It was out of the Barcelona summit, following a warm handshake and backstage meeting between the two leaders, that Albares’ visit to Mexico was arranged, with Sheinbaum assuring audiences that “there is no diplomatic crisis, there has never been one”.

Back in CDMX, at the ‘España: una política exterior humanista’ (Spain: a humanist foreign policy) conference arranged by the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (Unam), Mexico’s national university, Albares spoke at length on the importance of Spain and the European Union’s (EU) relationship with Mexico and other Latin American partners. “Europe and Latin America are showing the world that there is another way to do diplomacy – a diplomacy based on alliances, exchange, and agreements” remarked the minister, referencing the newly agreed EU–Mercosur trade deal and the modernised global agreement (MGA) between the EU and Mexico, which was formally signed on 22 May. Such a model of diplomacy stood in stark contrast to those whom Albares referred to as the “prophets of war” who “invite us not to move forward toward a new order, but to go far backward instead”.

• EU deal

President Claudia Sheinbaum signed the modernised global agreement (MGA) along with the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and the president of the European Council, António Costa, at the EU-Mexico summit in Mexico City (CDMX) on 22 May. The agreement greatly expands the existing agreement that has been in place since 2000, lowering tariffs on key agricultural products, streamlining processes, and lowering logistical costs. The agreement also includes pledges to cooperate on issues of energy, the environment, human rights, security, and technology, as well as to increase investment between Mexico and the EU.

While a formal apology from the Spanish state remains unfulfilled, Albares made sure during his trip to Mexico to reaffirm his government’s recognition of the “pain, injustice and abuse” committed against Mexico’s indigenous peoples during colonial rule, insisting “it is right to recognise it, and it is right to lament it”. Such offerings of official humility have worked to earn back the trust of the Sheinbaum government as both governments seek closer cooperation in 2026. To this end, at the national palace meeting between Sheinbaum and Albares, the Spanish envoy extended King Felipe VI’s formal invitation for Sheinbaum to attend the Ibero-American Summit, hosted in Madrid in November, in what would mark her first face-to-face meeting with the King. Yet, the opportunity for a face-to-face meeting may come even sooner, with King Felipe also due to visit Mexico in June for the Fifa World Cup. It seems that the days of inauguration snubs and ‘pauses’ in relations have been left in the past. Indeed, Sheinbaum stated on 18 May that the two countries were now living through “a completely different moment”, in another indication of the renewed state of relations.

Cárdenas

Albares’ itinerary also involved a visit to the grave of former President Lázaro Cárdenas (1934-1940), under whose leadership Mexico became a place of political refuge for republican exiles during the Spanish Civil War. Laying a wreath at Cárdenas’ tomb, the minister said that Spain “will never forget” the solidarity shown by the Mexican government towards his country during one of the “darkest moments” in its history. It is this common thread of their shared republican and revolutionary struggles that now appears to be prevailing over questions of colonial culpability that overshadowed relations during the López Obrador presidency.

Madrid leader sparks controversy

Countervailing political forces inside both countries have sought to disrupt the progressive Sheinbaum-Sánchez rapprochement. On 3 May, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, the conservative leader of Madrid’s regional government, arrived in Mexico on a trip designed to strengthen ties between the Spanish and Mexican right that courted significant controversy within Mexico. Ayuso, an influential figure within Spain’s opposition Partido Popular (PP), provoked outrage when she praised the Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés at an event in Mexico City (CDMX) hosted alongside the mayor of the capital’s Cuauhtémoc borough, Alessandra Rojo de la Vega, of the right-wing opposition Partido Acción Nacional (PAN). Ayuso’s comments, an apparent rebuke of the recent contrition shown by the Sánchez government over Spain’s colonial history, drew the ire of President Sheinbaum who said at an event the following day: “To those who romanticise the conquest as salvation, we say: you are doomed to defeat”.

This contentious episode, which ended in Ayuso cutting her time in Mexico short after claiming Sheinbaum’s government had promoted a boycott of her events, is likely only to have the effect, in the immediate term, of bolstering relations further between Sánchez and Sheinbaum. However, it does serve to highlight the distinct political climates and scale of domestic challenges the two leaders face. Unlike Sheinbaum, Sánchez does not enjoy the luxury of consistently positive personal approval ratings, a working legislative majority, and a largely ineffectual right-wing opposition. As such, the Ayuso affair is an important reminder of how rapidly bilateral relations could deteriorate if the embattled Sánchez were to fall to Spain’s resurgent right-wing, with elections due in 2027.