When President Bush arrived in Madrid yesterday morning, he was greeted with high expectations in Spanish ruling circles, as well as with street demonstrations against his policies on the death penalty, nuclear weapons and the environment.
These issues are also of concern to the Spanish government, but they will not have prevented the pragmatic Prime Minister, Mr Jose Maria Aznar, from pursuing his own ambitious agenda with the US yesterday.
The fact that Mr Bush chose to spend the first day of his first visit to Europe in Spain is considered highly significant in the Spanish capital. (He travels to Brussels today for a NATO meeting, and will meet EU leaders in Sweden tomorrow, before visiting Poland and Slovakia, where he concludes his five-day trip with a summit with Russia's President Putin.)
The details of Mr Aznar's agenda were not evident in last night's press conference, but the tone suggested that Mr Bush had succeeded in establishing at least some common ground with Mr Aznar on the former's controversial proposal for a nuclear missile shield. That is unlikely to have been achieved without some quid quo pro from Mr Bush.
The US and Spain agree "on the need for a comprehensive security strategy" and are consulting with their allies on the growing threat from weapons of mass destruction, the two men said in an agreed statement. Mr Bush said the strategy should be one that "encompasses both offensive and defensive deterrent systems". While no specific mention was made of a nuclear missile shield, Mr Bush said the Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty signed by Washington and Moscow in 1972 was now a "relic of the past". Yesterday's discussions between Mr Bush and Mr Aznar took place, almost inevitably, on a finca, the Spanish equivalent of a ranch. But their content was much more than merely symbolic, as Mr Aznar seeks to establish Spain's place as a major player not just in the EU, but in the world.
From the time of Colombus, Spain has seen itself as the bridge between the Old and New Worlds. Rapidly increasing Spanish investment in Latin America since the 1980s, and the equally fast growth of the Hispanic community in the US in the same period, have lent contemporary weight to this old imperial vision.
Mr Bush clearly recognises the growth of the Spanish population and language in his own country, and has committed himself to giving strategic priority to Latin America in his foreign and economic policies. He has made much of the Hispanic roots of his native Texas, and is the first US president to use Spanish in his speeches. However halting his Castillian may be - and it is probably little worse than his notoriously clumsy English - this has gone down well in Madrid, even though he mispronounced Mr Aznar's name as `Anzar' yesterday.
Spain considers itself the mother country of a world-wide community of 350 million Spanish speakers, and believes this will be a major source of influence in the Internet age. The fact that Spanish is now the second language of the most powerful country in the world should reinforce this influence.
The wave of privatisations in Latin America over two decades has opened the door to massive Spanish investment in the vast emerging markets of the region. These Spanish interests could clash with US plans to extend the North American Free Trade Agreement down to the southern cone, potentially erecting barriers to commerce with Europe. Indeed, the Chilean President, Mr Ricardo Lagos, warned Mr Aznar only last week that the US was negotiating trade deals with Latin America much more energetically than the EU.
However, Mr Aznar believes the US will need the help of Spain's historic and cultural links with Latin America if its expansion into Latin America is not to be resisted as a disguised form of Yankee imperialism. He sees Madrid's role as fostering stability and co-operation as well as competition. He also believes he can strengthen Spain's already significant bilateral military ties with the US in the NATO framework.
Mr Bush's visit thus offers Mr Aznar the opportunity to play the role of honest broker between the world's only superpower and his EU partners. He can offer Madrid to the US as an alternative link with both Brussels and NATO to its traditional one in London. Bearing in mind Mr Aznar's already excellent relationship with Mr Blair, the potential growth of Spanish influence on both sides of the Atlantic becomes apparent.
Additional reporting: AFP, Reuters