BARCELONA — Mexico's President Claudia Sheinbaum met with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez in Barcelona on Saturday after a summit of progressive leaders, signaling a rapprochement during the first presidential visit to the Mediterranean country in eight years.

The meeting took place during Sheinbaum's visit to Barcelona to attend the fourth "In Defense of Democracy" summit, a gathering of global leftist leaders aiming to mobilize advocates of these movements against the far right.

Sheinbaum's trip marked a softening of previously strained relations and was the first visit by a Mexican president to Spain since the ruling Morena party came to power in 2018.

Relations deteriorated under her predecessor, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who in 2019 demanded an apology for abuses committed during Spain's colonial rule in Mexico, a request that was not met at the time.

"There has already been a rapprochement from both the Spanish president and the king himself, which we acknowledge," Sheinbaum told reporters as she left the event, saying she still outlined Mexico's stance on the importance of acknowledging the abuses committed during the colonization of Latin America during her meeting with Sanchez.

She said she had invited Sanchez to attend the fifth edition of the summit, to be held in Mexico next year.

"I believe that President Sheinbaum's presence here is a very important and positive sign of a rapprochement between the two countries," Spain's economy minister, Carlos Cuerpo, told reporters at the summit.

Sheinbaum, meanwhile, thanked Sanchez for the invitation and said that "there is no diplomatic crisis (with Spain); there never has been one".

Her administration invited Spain's King Felipe VI last month to attend the World Cup opening ceremony that will take place in June, a sign of thawing relations. Sheinbaum had not invited him to her inauguration ceremony last year.

During the summit, Sanchez also hosted Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. After the meeting, the governments of Brazil, Spain and Mexico vowed to step up coordinated aid to Cuba to alleviate what they described as a humanitarian crisis caused by the United States blockade of the Caribbean island.

In a joint statement, the three countries called for sincere dialogue in line with the United Nations Charter, saying the Cuban people must be free to determine their own future.

Agencies - Xinhua