MADRID, Nov. 26 (Xinhua) -- Spain supports multilateralism and that makes the country an important actor in deepening the relations between China and the European Union (EU), two former senior Spanish officials have told Xinhua.

"I appreciate that China has a multilateral vocation," former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said on the sidelines of the China-Europe Forum on Reform and Globalization held recently in Madrid.

"We have to build a community that perceives itself in that way, because more than ever in history we share a common destiny," he added. "Spain has great assets because being an unequivocally pro-European country, it has great capacity to have an open and multilateral vision."

Echoing Zapatero, Javier Solana, a former secretary general of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), told Xinhua that Spain can be a very important actor in China-EU relations against the backdrop of impending Brexit and divergencies among European countries.

"China and Europe will work towards the same direction. We want multilateralism. China also wants it. We do not want protectionism," he said, adding that from a broader perspective, globalization benefits both China and Spain.

Solana, who served in the Spanish government as foreign minister between 1992 and 1995, stressed that in today's interconnected world, problems are no longer up to a single country or a single region.

Therefore, it is necessary to change from a tactical vision to a strategic vision that allows perceiving problems in a longer term, he said.

"Trying to resolve today's conflicts by looking only at the present is not a solution," he said. "You have to deal with the current problems by looking at what can be done, strategically observing. It's not about winning elections here or there. It's about saving the world."