Argentina - China Relations
Argentina's relations with China showed signs of cooling under the Milei administration, though China remained an important economic partner as Argentina sought to recover from its economic crisis. In 2023, the BRICS group — composed of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa — invited Argentina and five other countries to become new members of the bloc of emerging economies. Then-President Fernández welcomed the invitation. President Milei reversed course, however, announcing it was not "opportune" to join the group. Although President Milei harshly criticized the PRC during his election campaign, he adopted a pragmatic approach toward China since his inauguration, in part reflecting the two countries' extensive trade and investment ties. In June 2024, the two countries' central banks renewed an estimated $5 billion currency swap agreement originally negotiated under the Fernández administration; the PRC government, reportedly in response to Milei's rhetoric, had suspended the agreement in December 2023 shortly after he assumed office.75
Argentina was deepening and strengthening its relations with China. The bilateral agenda has been reactivated and the visit of Minister Malcorra in May 2016 represented a landmark to reach agreements that promote an increase in investment flows and further balanced commercial exchanges, increasing argentine exports to the Chinese market. In this context, it was worth highlighting the role of Chinese investments in the road, port, mining, energy and railway infrastructure plan that was being implemented by the Argentine government, which envisages investments of about 100 billion dollars over the next four years.
The ties between Argentina and The People's Republic of China have been strengthened at the same time as China´s role in the world's economy continued to increase. China was the second-largest destination for Argentine exports and, during the past three years, bilateral trade has averaged a total 16 billion dollars per year.
Since President Macri took office, the Argentine government has decided to strengthen ties with China, updating priority issues of the bilateral agenda that are defined by the international insertion that Argentina was seeking. The first step of this relaunching was the meeting between Presidents Mauricio Macri and Xi Jinping at the Nuclear Security Summit held in Washington March 31st and April 1st, 2016, in which both leaders reaffirmed the strategic nature of the relation. An additional step was the visit of Foreign Minister Susana Malcorra to China in May in order to define concrete actions to enhance the existing partnership between the two countries.
At the meetings with Minister Malcorra both countries agreed on the importance of reactivating mechanisms of bilateral dialogue that enable the continued strengthening of relations on a foreseeable and transparent basis. Along these lines, the two countries agreed to hold the 20th Meeting of the Joint Economic and Trade Committee in Beijing, which took place on July 11th and 12th.
Argentina officially joined the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) 06 February 2022, on the 50th anniversary of China-Argentina diplomatic ties, with top leaders from both countries expressing their willingness to further deepen bilateral cooperation as well as cooperation between China and Latin America. Chinese President Xi Jinping met with Argentine President Alberto Fernandez in Beijing after Fernandez attended the opening ceremony of the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games. Following the meeting, a joint statement on deepening the comprehensive strategic partnership with the signing of a series of documents for future cooperation was released.
In a major step, officials from China and Argentina signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on cooperation within the framework of the BRI, aiming to promote the construction of the BRI in Argentina and cooperation in various fields, including policy communication, connectivity, unimpeded trade, financial integration, people-to-people exchanges, and third-party markets, the National Development and Reform Commission, China's top economic planner, said.
During the meeting, Xi stressed that the two countries should promote the high-quality construction of the BRI and implement existing major cooperation projects such as hydropower plants and railways, while giving full play to their complementary advantages and deepening cooperation in various fields. In addition to the MoU on BRI cooperation, the two countries also signed cooperation documents for over ten areas, including green development, the digital economy, aerospace, the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System, technological innovation and agriculture.
Analysts noted that Argentina will greatly benefit from the BRI in multiple fields such as infrastructure construction, economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and investment, which will have a positive effect on Latin American countries that have yet to join the BRI. Argentina will be able to attract more investment from China and deepen comprehensive cooperation in bilateral trade and investment in some key fields such as energy and the digital economy, Wang Youming, director of the Institute of Developing Countries at the China Institute of International Studies in Beijing, told the Global Times on Sunday.
According to the joint statement, the two sides agreed to enhance bilateral trade cooperation and continue to expand trade, while promoting financial support for the settlement of China's exports to Argentina and actively encouraging the promotion of trade diversification.
A previously signed bilateral local currency swap agreement played an important role in maintaining Argentina's financial stability, said the joint statement. The two sides will continue to closely cooperate in local currency swaps and encourage both sides to make greater use of local currency settlements in trade and investment.
Fernandez said that Argentina will continue to actively participate in the BRI cooperation, deepen cooperation in trade, agriculture, infrastructure construction and other fields, and welcome more Chinese enterprises to invest in Argentina. He also stressed that Argentina was willing to work closely with China under the multilateral framework, promote multilateralism, and play a greater role in promoting cooperation between the CELAC and China.
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
