Since Last January, 16 Ibero-American and Caribbean Nations Have Joined the Belt and Road

FROM EIR DAILY ALERT

Since Last January, 16 Ibero-American and Caribbean Nations Have Joined the Belt and Road

Dec. 26, 2018 (EIRNS)—In a little under a year since the Jan. 22, 2018 ministerial meeting of the China-CELAC Forum took place in Santiago, Chile—CELAC is the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States—a total of 16 nations of the Latin America-Caribbean (LAC) nations have officially signed on to the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

At that summit, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who was present, and President Xi Jinping, who addressed the summit by letter, invited the governments represented there to participate in the BRI global development project. Xi recalled that the ancestors of both regions had “blazed the trans-Pacific Silk Road.... Today, we need to draw a new blueprint for our joint effort under the Belt and Road Initiative.” The CELAC foreign ministers issued a special declaration expressing great interest in cooperating with China through the BRI.

Yang Shouguo, director of the Institute of Latin America Studies at China’s Academy of Modern International Relations, told Xinhua that in less than a year, almost half of the region’s 33 nations have signed Memorandums of Understanding with China to jointly build the BRI,

“reflecting their great enthusiasm for this global project, and that Sino-Latin American relations have entered a new phase of development in terms of interconnection and coupling of their development strategies.”

At the beginning of 2018, trade volume between China and the LAC region had increased by 20% year on year. China is now the LAC region’s second largest trading partner and third largest investor. More than 2,000 Chinese companies have opened branches in the region, creating more than 1.8 million jobs.

“From building the fourth bridge over the Panama Canal, to widening Costa Rica’s Route 32, to revitalizing Argentina’s Belgrano Cargas railroad, to building an ultra-high-tension transmission line for the Belo Monte hydroelectric project in Brazil, the joint building of the Belt and Road has created tangible benefits for local populations,”

Xinhua pointed out. Colegio de Mexico Prof. Marisela Connelly stated that the underdevelopment of Latin America’s infrastructure put a brake on economic development, but now the Belt and Road Initiative “interconnects infrastructure which is exactly what Latin America needs.”