Chinese President said that his country's alliance with Latin America and Caribbean countries was of strategic importance as he opened the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) Media Leaders Summit in Santiago.
China appointed a new finance minister on Monday who is expected to maintain an expansionary fiscal policy and push reforms to put a lid on rising debt levels in the economy. Xiao Jie, a former tax chief and Minister of Finance deputy minister, was named minister of finance, the official Xinhua news agency said on Monday.
Uruguay and Argentina, and their cabinets will be meeting this Monday in Buenos Aires to address a bilateral agenda, which was agreed long before hand, but the real issue will not necessarily be trade, dredging canals, pulp mills, customs or facilitating people's movement, but rather the negotiations for a free trade agreement which supposedly Uruguay is about to begin discussing with China.
Argentine president Mauricio Macri announced in China that besides boosting and balancing bilateral trade and confirming the infrastructure and energy deals reached by his predecessor, Chinese tourists will no longer need visas to visit Argentina.
President Mauricio Macri got another big nod of support as US President Barack Obama highlighted him as one of the few national leaders setting an example for the world by going against a wave of protectionism gaining presence on a global scale, in a speech during the G20 conference.
Argentine president Mauricio Macri is off to Hangzhou, China for this first G20 summit where he is expected to hold bilateral talks with the host Xi Jinping, Russia's Vladimir Putin, Germany's Merkel and probably UK prime minister Theresa May.
China’s role in Argentina’s foreign relations will be more balanced than during the Kirchner administrations, with a larger role played instead by the United States and European countries, the country’s ambassador to Beijing Diego Guelar said, claiming Chinese investment will have to be more competitive.
China has agreed to review contracts signed with Argentina, which need modifications, for the sake of transparency, according to Buenos Aires sources, but the overall strategic relation between the two countries and a raft of accords in different fields stands and is expected to continue to grow.
Beijing said that it expects Argentina to perform according to law in reference to the recent sinking of a Chinese flagged jigger by the country's Coast Guard and which was operating in Argentina's EEZ. The announcement is considered significant in Buenos Aires since Argentine president Mauricio Macri is expecting to meet his counterpart Xi Jinping in Washington, next Friday in the framework of the Nuclear security summit.
Argentine ambassador to Beijing Diego Guelar confirmed a meeting between President Mauricio Macri and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping next April first on the margins of the Nuclear Security Summit that begins next week in Washington and anticipated an official visit to China by Macri in September.