The arrival of two senior US officials in the country in the next few days, and the continuous messages from Washington to the government of Alberto Fernández and his other partners that suspicious of Chinese presence in strategic areas from Latin America to put pressure on Argentina, but not to intimidate Beijing.
In the last week there was new gestures in the global strategic alliance maintained by Argentina and the Asian giant with which in May they should agree on how to implement some of the 23 infrastructure and investment projects protected by the so-called “A Strip, a Route or the Silk Road” that Fernández and Foreign Minister Santiago Cafiero joined on their trip to meet Xi Jinping in February 2022.
Without going any further, Defense Minister Jorge Taiana received on Wednesday authorities from China’s State Administration for National Defense Science, Technology and Industry (SANSTIND), which is seeking concretize cooperation between the two countries in the field of defense industry.
It is one of the most delicate areas on the negotiating table today and which was also made public by the head of the US Southern Command Fleet, General Laura Richardson, who has an appointment with Taiana, in Buenos Aires, precisely between Sunday 16 and Tuesday 18. A meeting with Vice President Cristina Kirchner, such as the one held in 2022, is also not excluded.
Even if Washington has managed to stop, for the moment, the entry of Chinese capital into China the construction of the Logistics Center of Ushuaiathe offer for the future purchase of the FJ17 aircraft and for the possibility of Argentina and China sharing industrial defense projects continues to be hot.
After all, this Tuesday Taiana is taking part in a fair in Brazil, in search of less traumatic and accessible alternatives to those that Washington and Beijing are fighting for.
But in the area of strategic natural resources, the Chinese are advancing and Argentina needs investment.
Without going any further, Governor Raúl Jalil and Ambassador Sabino Vaca Narvaja have just concluded a series of juicy deals in Beijing Chinese investment in lithium in Catamarca. The Chinese are already strong in Jujuy,
“Mining has the potential to solve our recurring currency crises,” Vaca Narvaja said in Beijing while Jalil met with the governor of Fujian province and the chairman of China’s Zijin Mining Group. They are two phases of the same project. First 20,000 tons of lithium annually for battery production with an investment of US$500 million; and in a second phase another 60,000 tons per year with an investment of 700 million dollars.
last March 21st Cafiero received the Chinese ambassador to Argentina Zou Xiaoli in his officeto adjust the trend of bilateral relations and ratified the willingness to deepen “high-quality” cooperation with the Belt and Road initiative.
Financing for strategic infrastructural works in Argentina is implemented with two mechanisms: one already approved for 14,000 million dollars and a second package for 9,700 million dollars, which Argentina will present in the ad hoc group created between the two countries. work after joining the Belt and Road. It comes slowly but not because of political decisions but because of the way of implementing it.
In these packages are the extensive works for the two dams of Santa Cruz and another one for the nuclear power plant in the province of Buenos Aires. Jobs expanded not due to political pressure, but due to various economic problems, conflicts and lack of interest.
On the other, the government works on the repeatedly postponed trip to China by Sergio Massa, the most pro-American of cabinet ministers. Without going any further, this Wednesday Massa embarks on a trip to Washington to participate in the spring meetings of the Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
And on his trip he will stop in the Dominican Republic, above all to meet Wendy Sherman, deputy secretary of state in Joe Biden’s government, who will be in Argentina this Thursday and Friday to explore the issues discussed by the President of the United States and Alberto Fernández in their meeting at the White House on March 29.
At the same time, the Chinese tend to recurrently recall the help represented by the latest agreement to expand the exchange of currencies between central banks which brought the exchange rate figure to 130,000 million yuan, equal to 18.5 billion dollars last November, which served as a reinforcement of reserves – not usable internationally – for the Central Bank.
If for the US military China is directly an “enemy” for the State Department and the Treasury Department is an “adversary”. The difference in terms is only of a diplomatic nature. The meaning is the same.
In this sense, the last words pronounced by General Richardson on China – in the heat of the new escalation of China and the United States by Taiwan – in a conference last March also seemed to be addressed to Argentina.
Beijing “continues to expand its economic, diplomatic, technological, informational and military influence” in Latin America through “predatory investment practices”. Addressing the Congressional Defense Committee on Security Challenges in the Americas, Richardson said China “has the ability and willingness” to “promote its brand of authoritarianism and amass power and influence at the expense of these democracies.”
And he said the Chinese government took advantage of the fact that Latin American leaders “are desperate for their economies” after taking the full hit of the coronavirus pandemic and, “because they usually stay in power for only one term, they are in haste for the results of their negotiations”. The message came and worried.
Source: Clarin
