President Claudia Sheinbaum said on Tuesday that there is a high probability that she will meet with King Felipe VI of Spain during his trip to Mexico to attend the World Cup match between Spain and Uruguay on June 26 in Guadalajara.
When asked about the potential meeting, Sheinbaum said that talks are ongoing between diplomatic authorities from both countries to finalize the details.
Spanish king to attend the Spain-Uruguay World Cup match in Guadalajara
“Yes, it’s likely,” Sheinbaum said. “It’s still being discussed with the Spanish Foreign Ministry and the Spanish government. And I think we’ll announce it tomorrow or the day after,” she said, referring to Wednesday or Thursday.
King Felipe VI is scheduled to travel to Mexico to attend the match between Spain and Uruguay on June 26 in Guadalajara, Jalisco. The trip results from an invitation extended by the Mexican government to various heads of state and representatives of countries participating in the tournament.
The Spanish Royal House confirmed the monarch’s attendance at the World Cup match in May.
The meeting between the two heads of state will be held in Mexico City and will represent the highest level of dialogue between the two countries in recent years.
Diplomatic relations between Mexico and Spain went through a period of tension during the administration of former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, mainly due to disagreements related to the legacy of the Spanish Conquest.
The last time a Mexican president met with the monarch was eight years ago, when former President Enrique Peña Nieto traveled to Spain to meet with King Felipe and former head of the Spanish Government Mariano Rajoy.
In recent months, both nations have shown signs of rapprochement, particularly following King Felipe’s public declarations acknowledging the ‘abuses’ made during the Conquest. Sheinbaum described the king’s statement as “a gesture; an approach that we acknowledge,” and called on both countries to keep working on the process of recognizing the great civilizations that existed in Mesoamerica and in other parts of today’s Latin America.
The potential meeting between Sheinbaum and King Felipe VI would be interpreted as a further gesture of normalization and strengthening of bilateral ties, taking advantage of the international visibility offered by the 2026 World Cup.
With reports from El Universal and El País
