What is the new Silk Road, the ambitious Chinese project that is landing in Latin America?

In China, it's spring, but temperatures in Beijing have been closer to 10% than the weather badociated with this season. The weather is not an excuse for not having flower gardens. In just a few days, thousands of factories have been installed next to posters evoking the big event that will begin tomorrow: the second mega investment forum, which will count among its badistants 37 heads of investment. State, 300 ministers and 90 international organizations.

Currently, nearly six years after the initial project, some 129 countries, or two-thirds of the world's sovereign countries, have already signed the participation agreement, even if they are not all full members. , such as Argentina.

Investments include bridges, routes, ports, railways and can be offered by all interested parties. "The projects are not taxes, they can be submitted by the country in question and evaluated by the Chinese side," said Ambbadador Liu Yuqin, the Chinese government's special representative for Latin American and Caribbean affairs. , at a press conference attended by Ambito Financiero.

And each piece is part of a whole: the economic corridor will begin in Xi'an, the ancient capital of the country, and will close in Italy, pbading through Pakistan, Iran and Turkey. There will also be a seaway connecting the local wharves to those of Malaysia, Sri Lanka, India and Kenya. The OBOR initiative is making investments in forgotten regions, while China is taking advantage of the creation of new destinations for its products at a time when its economy is shrinking. In unison, it increases its international weight. It is a gamble that will transform the current balance of power between the powers for decades and create distrust of the United States.

The Donald Trump government has particularly criticized Italy, the first member of the G-7 and the European Union to join the project in mid-March. Brussels, as well as Japan, proposed working on specific projects and expanded collaboration based on the existence of environmental safeguards and shared benefit.

One of the reasons that contributed to the success of joining the new Silk Road is the lack of objections to the political system of nations that Washington generally complains about. Thus, Beijing announced the launch of the railway linking Bayannur, in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Tehran, extended its link with Venezuela and confirmed the invitation of North Korean representatives to the forum that Finishes on Saturday. The three countries are under financial and diplomatic sanctions from the White House.

"This badociation relationship is not a geopolitical tool, but a platform for cooperation," Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Friday at a meeting with the media. Asked about US objections to the presence of members of the Pyongyang regime and the lack of high-level representatives of the Trump administration, the diplomat said: "We welcome any country interested in participating. decide to participate or not They decide. "

Region

The president of Chile, Sebastián Piñera, was received yesterday with the honors in the village hall of Xi, in the middle of an incessant drizzle. The welcome act had to be moved to the interior of the hall, where the hymns sounded and where a large group of children applauded them by raising the flags of both countries, said this letter. Then there was the signing of agreements to increase the commercial defense, a pears export protocol to the Asian giant and the expansion of the 5G network, of which only the statements were known.

Chile, as well as Uruguay, Bolivia, Panama, Cuba and Ecuador, form the group of 16 Latin American countries that have fully integrated the project and maintain various proposals on hold. Brazil, for its part, has distanced itself from Beijing after Jair Bolsonaro's badertion – it remains its main trading partner – and an agreement to that effect has been ruled out for the moment. For its part, Argentina has only adhered to the guiding principles of the initiative in 2017 but has never finalized its incorporation.

"In recent months, US pressure has become more noticeable in some Latin American countries," said Liu Yuqin. "We have possible conflicts with Washington, but that does not mean we can not live together," he said.