Spain will pursue closer trade ties with China in the interests of its citizens and of the EU, its agriculture minister Luis Planas said on Wednesday, rejecting a U.S. warning that moving closer to the Asian country would be "cutting your own throat". "We have excellent trade relations with China which we intend to not only continue having, but expanding," Planas told reporters from Ho Chi Minh City, where he was accompanying Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on a trip to Vietnam and, on Friday, China. Planas had been asked about earlier comments by U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who criticised Spanish Economy Minister Carlos Cuerpo's suggestion that Europe should more closely align with China.