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José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero is the current Prime Minister of Spain. His foreign policy decisions have played an important role in his activity.

Regarding it, Zapatero claims to favor a multilateral world with the United Nations playing a fundamental role. He has also affirmed his view that a strict respect to international law is essential for keeping peace (clearly in reference to the Iraq war).

Foreign policy is one of the areas where Zapatero differs most from his predecessor José María Aznar. Aznar defended a foreign policy based on two pillars. One of them was a strong alliance with the United States of America. The other was a peripheral European strategy where Spain would emphasize its friendship with European countries like Italy, the United Kingdom or Poland in order to compensate French and German power. Zapatero has preferred to focus only in two countries in Europe, France and Germany, which would form along with Spain a strong block opposed to American preponderance and aimed at directing Europe destiny. According to his supporters he is focusing on the core countries and France and Germany are only two of them.

Iraq

Following his political creed, Rodríguez Zapatero, soon after winning the election, ordered back home the 1300 Spanish troops in Iraq. The scheduled return date coincided with the beginning of the European Election political campaign (what was not casual according to some critics, as the opposition to Aznar's Iraq policy had been high among Spaniards). The announcement of the withdrawal coincided with a serious growth in the amount of terrorist abductions in Iraq intended to blackmail against the government of the victims' countries.

During the electoral campaign Zapatero had promised to withdraw the troops if control in Iraq was not passed to the United Nations after June 30th (the ending date of the initial Spanish military agreement with the multinational coalition that had overthrown Saddam Hussein). He declared that he did not intend to withdraw the Spanish troops before that date after being questioned about the issue by Mariano Rajoy in his inauguration parliamentary debate.

The decision aroused a high international criticism worldwide, as it was feared that the terrorists could perceive it as a victory obtained thanks to the March 11 attacks. Even the then Democratic candidate for the American Presidency, John Kerry asked Zapatero not to retire the Spanish soldiers. Some months after retiring the troops, the Socialist Government agreed to increase the number of Spanish soldiers in Afghanistan and to send troops to Haiti. It seems that one of the aims of these actions was to show the Spanish Government willingness to spend resources on international missions it approved of.

On June 8, 2004, with the withdrawal already finished, Zapatero's government voted in the UN Security Council in favor of the Resolution 1546where could be read the following:

"The Security Council, Recognizing the importance of international support for the people of Iraq in their efforts to achieve security and prosperity , Recognizing that international support for restoration of stability and security is essential to the well-being of the people of Iraq , and welcoming Member State contributions in this regard , Affirming the importance of international assistance in reconstruction and development of the Iraqi economy ,

15. Requests Member States and international and regional organizations to contribute assistance to the multinational force, including military forces, as agreed with the Government of Iraq, to help meet the needs of the Iraqi people for security and stability, humanitarian and reconstruction assistance, and to support the efforts of UNAMI;"

Later, during a visit to Tunisia, he asked all of the countries with troops in Iraq to withdraw their soldiers thus imitating his decision. This declaration moved the U.S. president George W. Bush to send an angry letter to the Spanish premier. Later, the American ambassador to Spain refused to go to the annual National Holiday military parade on October 12 2004 as a response to Zapatero's behavior the previous year.

Zapatero publicly stated his support for John Kerry as a candidate running the American Presidential Election in November 2004. After they took place, Bush never returned Zapatero's congratulation phone call. (The White House firmly denied that Bush's intention was snubbing the Spanish prime minister. ) Zapatero has repeatedly insisted that Spain relations with the United States are good.

Another change in Spanish foreign policy was Zapatero's decision to approach extreme left-wing leaders such as Fidel Castro or the President of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez. Zapatero has played an important role in the improvement of the relation between the Cuban Communist regime and the European Union.

On the issue of Gibraltar, Zapatero initially took a strong line with the United Kingdom, complaining at Gibraltar's celebrations for the tercentenary of its independence from Spain and rejecting the Gibraltarians' requests for Spain to recognize its right to self-determination. Zapatero's government could have considered those celebrations a provocation that could be showing Britain's wish to make Zapatero "pay" for abandoning Spain's former allies in Iraq.

After 2004

At the end of 2004, Zapatero decided to change his policy and to become the first Spanish prime minister to accept the participation of Gibraltar as a partner in the same level than Spain and the United Kingdom in the discussions both countries hold regularly about the colony. The decision was criticized as a surrender of the Spanish rights to sovereignty over the British colony by the Spanish opposition. Zapatero justified it as a new way to solve a 300 hundred years old problem.

Regarding the writing of the European Constitution, Zapatero accepted the distribution of power proposed by countries such as Germany and France, abandoning Poland, that had defended until then the same stance than the Spanish People's Party government. That new distribution meant a loss of influence for Spain, but Zapatero accepted it even without any compensation for his country. After signing up the treaty in Rome together with other leaders, he decided to call for a referendum on it, which was held on February 20, 2005. It was the first in Europe (a fact high publicized by Zapatero's government). The turnout was the lowest in Spanish history, only 41%. Of those 75% voted in favor of the European Constitution, which had been defended by the most important parties (including the Socialist Party and the People's Party).

In December 2004, Zapatero, after attending the Parliamentary Investigative Committee about the March 11 terrorist attacks for 15 hours, decided to suspend his meeting with the Polish government, scheduled for the next day in Poland. He argued, literally that "he felt a little tired". Some days later Zapatero was scheduled to meet the Polish Prime Minister in a European summit to be held in Brussels. This meeting did not take place either after the airplane of the Polish leader was said to have suffered an unexpected delay. This added to the already damaged Spanish-Polish relations that had been affected by Zapatero's abandonment of Poland in the talks to draft the European Constitution.

On March 1 2005 he became the first Spanish prime minister to speak to the French National Assembly.

At the end of March 2005, he travelled to Venezuela to draw a deal to sell Hugo Chavez's regime military ship and aircraft worth around $1000 million. The decision was criticized by the American Government and the People's Party.