It's official: in the coming weeks a technical delegation from Argentina's Air Force will be travelling to China to assess the convenience of purchasing Chinese jet fighters to replace the obsolete French made Mirages. Only a month ago president Cristina Fernandez was in Beijing where she sealed an integral strategic alliance with China.
Loans by China's state-owned banks to Latin American countries rose by 71% to 22bn dollars in 2014, according to estimates published by the China-Latin America Finance Database. The figure is the second largest on record for Chinese lending in Latin America, according to the report.
Despite the strong questioning from the opposition, the manufacturers' lobby and many unions, the Argentine ruling coalition mustered sufficient votes in the Lower House to pass the controversial package of cooperation, economic and investment agreements between Argentina and China.
China has agreed to supply Argentina with new fighter jets that will replace its aging fleet of single-engine Dassault Mirage planes. Defense experts said two types of China-developed fighters are likely candidates: the Chengdu Aircraft Corporation-built FC-1/JF-17 and the J-10, according to a report from Chinatopix.
Brazilian foreign minister Mauro Vieira discarded that the recent agreements reached by Argentina with China can interfere with Mercosur, while his Argentine counterpart Hector Timerman said that the package of accords with Beijing will actually benefit Mercosur.
Argentina's top officials will meet on Thursday with representatives from the Argentine Industrial Union, UIA, to discuss some clauses and aspects of the recent agreements signed between China and Argentina last week, and which have been questioned by the manufacturers' lobby.
China's imports of key commodities eased in January after the record high set in December, as expected as the earlier heavy purchases to take advantage of weak prices had swollen inventories, preliminary customs data released has shown.
The construction of China's second aircraft carrier appears to be imminent, reports the Global Times, a tabloid under the auspices of the Communist Party mouthpiece People's Daily.
President Cristina Fernandez expressed her satisfaction for the over 1,000 businessmen that attended the Argentinean-Chinese forum she presided in Beijing and praised the 'strategic partnership' with China. The president also rejected criticism voiced by the Argentine Industrial Union (UIA) against her trip to China and the bilateral deals reached.
China's central bank has cut the level of funds banks must hold in reserve in an effort to boost growth in the world's second-largest economy. The reserve requirement ratio has been cut by 0.5 percentage points to 19.5%.