Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, crown prince of Abu Dhabi of the United Arab Emirates pays a state visit to China, Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt compete in a Conservative runoff to become Britain's next prime minister, Pedro Sanchez struggles to stay as Spain's prime minister, U.S. President Donald Trump hosts Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan for the first time.

Khan and Trump's first meeting

Pakistan's cricket-player-turned-politician Khan will visit Washington for the first time as prime minister to meet with U.S. President Trump at the White House on July 22 after last year's "Twitter War" between the two leaders.

Trump late last year on Twitter accused Pakistan of not doing "a damn thing" for the U.S. despite nine billion dollars in aid.

Khan responded combatively saying the U.S. had been ungrateful for Pakistan's sacrifices in killing and capturing terrorists.

Pakistan has played a behind-the-scenes role in supporting U.S. peace talks with the Afghan Taliban and Washington depends on Pakistan to supply its forces in neighboring Afghanistan. However the U.S. also accused Pakistan of offering safe havens to the Afghan Taliban, which Islamabad denies.

By February, Trump said the U.S. had developed a "much better" relationship and may set up some meetings with Pakistan.

Pakistan's foreign office said the focus of the coming meeting will be to refresh bilateral ties in a statement earlier this month.

Britain is due to announce a new prime minister on July 23 who will need to renegotiate the terms of its Brexit deal before October 31.

Around 160,000 Conservative members will vote through postal ballot to select between two remaining candidates: Hunt and Johnson.

Read more:

Jeremy Hunt: The underdog clawing back into UK PM race

Boris Johnson: The divisive favorite on track to win UK PM race

Voting closes at 16:00 GMT on July 22 and Theresa May will hand over power on July 24.

In a recent Conservative Home poll of 1,300 party members, Johnson won 71.8 percent support indicating him to be the favorite to win the premiership.

Meanwhile, the three-year Brexit crisis is deepening as Johnson pledged to leave the EU with or without a transition deal on October 31, setting Britain on a collision course with the bloc and his own parliament.

Earlier on Thursday, British lawmakers approved proposals to make it harder for the next prime minister to force through a no-deal Brexit by suspending parliament, showing again their resolve to stop a divorce from the European Union without an agreement.

Can Sanchez stay?

Monday sees the start of the inauguration debate in the Spanish Congress. A vote will be held on Tuesday and Sanchez needs to win an overall majority of 176 votes from the 350 deputies in Congress to be confirmed as prime minister.

Sanchez is very unlikely to win this first vote, which would need not only the Socialists Party's 123 lawmakers and Podemos Party’s 42 to vote for him, but also many other small parties, to get at least 176 votes.

Forty-eight hours after the first vote, lawmakers will cast ballots again. This time, all Sanchez requires is more "yes” than "no" votes. But that still will not be easy.

It will mostly depend on what Podemos does. If they vote for Sanchez, alongside the Basque Nationalists and a handful of lawmakers from smaller regions, which are largely guaranteed, it is in the bag for Sanchez.

Without Podemos, Sanchez would require a surprise abstention by a big party, possibly the conservative People’s Party. It would be very unexpected at this stage but that has happened in the past.

If no deal is reached, a repeat election would be held on November 10. If there is a deal and Sanchez is confirmed as prime minister, the question will be what he can achieve in power, considering how fragmented Spanish politics are.

Day-by-day

Monday: Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, crown prince of Abu Dhabi of the United Arab Emirates pays a state visit to China (from July 21 to 23), Pakistani PM Imran Khan is scheduled to visit the United States (to July 23), Spain's parliament begins a two-day debate culminating in a vote on July 23, on whether to name acting Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez as the country's new prime minister (to July 23), Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador meets Honduran President Juan Orlando to discuss migration and development, Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney speaks on Brexit.

Tuesday: UK announces new leader, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov meets Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel and Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez in Cuba to discuss bilateral and regional agenda (to July 24), EU holds General Affairs Council meeting.

Wednesday: Robert Mueller testifies before the U.S. House Judiciary and Intelligence committees

Thursday: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov visits Brazil (to July 26).

Friday: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov visits Suriname (to July 27), foreign ministers of BRICS countries Brazil, Russia, India, China and South African meet in Rio to prepare for the November presidential summit in Brasilia.

Saturday: 52nd ASEAN Ministerial Meetings kick off (to Aug 3).

Sunday: 105th anniversary of the beginning of World War I.

(With input from agencies)