Op-Ed Contributors

Latin America ties prosper

By Sun Hongbo (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-08-23 08:06

At the regional level, China cannot extricate its peaceful development from various suspicions, restrictions and even containment from the Western hegemony dominating the international system. But the development of the China-Latin America relationship doesn't target "a third party", so China and Latin American countries should develop their ties in an independent way, as they are an inevitable result of economic globalization and the multi-polarization of international politics.

With its fast growth, China has been increasingly attractive to Latin American countries and has become an important destination for them to diversify their foreign relations and economic and trade cooperation. During 2001 to 2008, China established strategic partnerships with Venezuela, Mexico, Argentina and Peru. China and Brazil forged a strategic partnership in 1993.

Thanks to the ascendant status of emerging economies, the differentiation and recombination of different powers on the international arena are accelerating, and this process will produce significant influence on the pattern of international power division.

Given the current complicated and volatile international situation, China and Latin American countries could benefit from relying on each other strategically.

In many multilateral occasions, including United Nations reform, international financial system reform, the Doha round of WTO negotiations and climate change talks under the UN framework, China and Latin American countries share common view and both sides could positively coordinate their stance and further expand cooperation.

China has established a sound consultation and dialogue mechanism with most Latin American countries concerning fields like politics, trade, science and education. The institutional building of bilateral relations will further facilitate good relations.

For example, in order to strengthen trade cooperation with Caribbean countries, China initiated the creation of the China-Caribbean Economic and Trade Cooperation Forum. Strategic dialogue mechanisms were also established between China and Brazil and China and Mexico to strengthen these strategic partnerships.

With the sharing of more common interests, China and Latin American countries should support each other and jointly maintain the legitimate interest of developing countries both in deepening bilateral relations and in enhancing multilateral cooperation on global issues.

China and Latin American countries should also further expand strategic consensus and deepen mutual trust, so as to propel the new international political and economic arrangement toward the direction conducive to developing countries.

The author is a researcher with the Institute of Latin American Studies under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences

China Forum

(China Daily 08/23/2010 page8)