On April 25, 2025, the 2025 China-Spain Mayors' Dialogue was held in Chongqing, hosted by the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries (CPAFFC) and the Fundación Cátedra China (China Chair Foundation), and organized by the Chongqing People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries (CQPAFFC). The theme of the dialogue was "Sharing Wisdom in Governance to Jointly Build Resilient Cities." Hu Henghua, Deputy Secretary of the CPC Chongqing Municipal Committee and Mayor of Chongqing; Jiang Jiang, Vice President of the CPAFFC; and Gerardo Pisarello, First Secretary of the Spanish Congress of Deputies and former Deputy Mayor of Barcelona, attended and addressed the opening ceremony. Eleven leaders from cities, prefectures, counties and districts in six provinces and municipalities including Jiangsu, Guangdong, Chongqing, Sichuan, Guizhou, and Gansu, as well as 12 mayors and 3 parliamentarians from six autonomous communities in Spain, including Andalusia, Asturias, Castile–La Mancha, Catalonia, Navarra and the Basque Country, attended the meeting.

In his address, Jiang Jiang emphasized the significant role of cities in international exchanges, noting that city-to-city cooperation constitutes a vital component of state-to-state relations. For a long time, local government cooperation between China and Spain has flourished, bringing tangible benefits to the people of the two countries. The CPAFFC highly values subnational exchanges and pragmatic cooperation with Spain. It will follow the important consensus reached by the leaders of the two countries on China-Spain relations, working to build a strong and well-connected bridge of friendship and cooperation between the cities of our two countries. The CPAFFC stands ready to collaborate with the Spanish side to make openness a new driving force, green a new defining feature and innovation a new engine for China-Spain urban cooperation, thereby jointly forging a new future-oriented landscape of urban cooperation.

Gerardo Pisarello expressed gratitude to the Chinese side for organizing this dialogue. He noted that in today's world marked by conflicts and uncertainties, China remains committed to addressing global development challenges through dialogue and steadfastly upholds multilateralism. Against this backdrop, it is all the more important that Spain and China strengthen dialogue, enhance mutual understanding, and promote mutually beneficial cooperation in the spirit of mutual respect. This dialogue represents a significant event convened in line with the important consensus between our two nations' leaders. He hoped this dialogue would initiate a new phase of subnational exchanges between the two countries and produce substantial results in Spain-China friendship and cooperation.

Following the opening ceremony, representatives from Chinese and Spanish cities engaged in in-depth discussions on three topics: "Build together a new green ecology for cities and towns," "Decipher the new keys to grassroots governance" and "Create a new paradigm of mutual benefit between sister cities" They introduced respective development conditions and governance experiences and jointly explored cooperation opportunities. All parties spoke positively of the productive outcomes of China-Spain urban cooperation. They unanimously agreed that, under current circumstances, cities in both countries should prioritize collaboration in energy transition, the digital economy, and smart cities. By enhancing exchanges and mutual learning, they can jointly advance sustainable development while contributing to the steady and sustained growth of the China-Spain comprehensive strategic partnership.

Lv Hongwei, Deputy Director-General and First-Level Counselor of the CPAFFC's Department of European and Asian Affairs, and Julián Nieva, Senator of Spain and Mayor of Manzanares, made concluding remarks.