Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez will not attend a reception President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump are hosting Tuesday evening for heads of state gathered in New York for the United Nations General Assembly, according to multiple Spanish media outlets.
The 81st session of the U.N. General Assembly is underway in New York, with high-level debates scheduled through Monday, September 28. President Trump is set to deliver his own address on Tuesday morning, following Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
El Mundo reports Sánchez received an invitation to the Trump reception last week, but sources from Spain’s La Moncloa Palace told the paper he would not attend, citing unspecified “agenda problems.”
That explanation has drawn scrutiny from Spanish outlets. El Mundo, La Vanguardia and public broadcaster RTVE all note that nothing on Sánchez’s Tuesday schedule actually conflicts with the reception’s timing. According to El Mundo, the last item on Sánchez’s agenda that day is a meeting with promoters of the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goals, which wraps up hours before the reception begins.
El Mundo also reports Sánchez does have plans to be in New York later in the week — he is scheduled to attend a Wednesday breakfast event hosted by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s office and the Global Progress Foundation, and to meet with Mamdani directly. Mamdani separately met with Lula on Monday.
The pattern of avoidance is not new. Sánchez also skipped the 2024 reception hosted by then-President Joe Biden, though on that occasion his U.N. speech happened to overlap with the event. By contrast, Spain’s King Felipe VI, who led the country’s delegation to last year’s General Assembly, did attend the 2025 reception hosted by the Trumps.
Relations between the two leaders have been strained. Trump has criticized Sánchez over Spain’s refusal to commit to NATO’s five percent of GDP defense-spending target and its refusal to assist the United States in the conflict with Iran. Trump has also faulted Sánchez’s handling of migration through Ceuta. The two last crossed paths briefly in late July at the 2026 FIFA World Cup final between Spain and Argentina.
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