MONTEVIDEO, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) — With Uruguayan President Luis Lacalle Pou’s state visit to the Asian country from Nov. 20 to 24, China and Uruguay strengthened their ties and raised them to the level of a comprehensive strategic partnership.
During his trip, Lacalle Pou met with Chinese President Xi Jinping and both parties signed dozens of agreements in the areas of trade, investment promotion, and scientific and educational cooperation.
The official Uruguayan mission, composed of the ministers of foreign affairs, economy, livestock and industry and accompanied by a large business delegation, maintained high-level contacts with Chinese counterparts.
The visit coincided with the 35th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries and the fifth anniversary of Uruguay’s accession to the Belt and Road Initiative.
POLITICAL COOPERATION
Lacalle Pou also met with Chinese Prime Minister Li Qiang and President of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC, China’s highest legislative body), Zhao Leji.
He also spoke at the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade and Tsinghua University and visited the headquarters of technology company Huawei in Beijing.
“We have seen results and are confident that the benefits for both countries will continue to increase during this and future visits,” Lacalle Pou emphasized in an interview with Xinhua.
The president emphasized that bilateral relations are “based on trust.”
Researcher on the bachelor’s program in International Business and Integration at the Catholic University of Uruguay (UCU), María Eugenia Pereira, emphasized that the South American country “has continued to deepen bilateral relations, regardless of the Uruguayan government in power.”
Pereira told Xinhua that the elevation to the level of a comprehensive strategic partnership represents a new phase in which “the agenda will no longer be dominated by economic-commercial aspects, which will not lose strength.”
Now “many other topics have opened up that can be worked on together, such as cooperation in education, science, sport and culture.”
“This is reflected in the agreements signed during this visit, which not only focus on opening or market access for new products, which is important, but also aim to explore and open other areas of cooperation with China,” he emphasized.
According to the General Administration of Customs of China, the trade volume between China and Uruguay reached $7.44 billion in 2022, 60 times higher than the value recorded at the time the two countries established diplomatic relations.
In addition, China’s imports from Uruguay reached a record $4.457 million, up 23 percent year-on-year.
China has maintained its position as Uruguay’s largest trading partner and largest export market for eleven consecutive years.
In recent years, agricultural products have achieved good results in China-Uruguay economic and trade cooperation.
Before leaving for China, Uruguayan Foreign Minister Omar Paganini, speaking to Xinhua, confirmed the intention to “deepen economic exchanges in the search for harmony, cooperation and peaceful relations that trade makes possible.”
In turn, Ignacio Bartesaghi, Doctor of International Relations and Director of the UCU International Business Institute, said that the governments of Uruguay and China are “united” in promoting the “energy transition and the fight against climate change.”
There is “relevant potential” in food security and the two countries “share a sustainability logic” that allows them to meet standards “in order to achieve more sustainable production”.
“In this progress, we need China’s cooperation because we need the technology,” he said.
Uruguay can contribute knowledge in its activity as an agricultural and livestock country and as a producer of beef, soy, cellulose, wood, dairy products and wool.
In a “deepened cooperation” scenario, China’s technology applied to agriculture would be “revolutionary for Uruguay,” he estimated.
THE BELT AND THE ROAD
Uruguay was the first country in the Southern Common Market (Mercosur) to sign the Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative in 2018.
Foreign Minister Paganini justified this initiative proposed by China with the construction of a 500 kilowatt power line in northern Uruguay by the China Machinery Engineering Corporation (CMEC) for the state-owned company UTE.
This transmission ring closure project will provide the Latin American country with a large amount of clean energy.
The mayor of Guichón in Paysandú department (northwest of Uruguay), Martín Álvarez, told Xinhua that CMEC’s work has had a “very important” impact, creating about 300 direct jobs.
“The source of employment created here has had an impact on the entire jurisdiction of the municipality of Guichón and even on other neighboring departments,” he said.
Meanwhile, civil engineer Robert Aguilar acknowledged that dealing with the Chinese workers was an “important challenge” due to language and cultural differences, but “we are taking the best of both cultures.”
President Lacalle Pou assured in an interview with Xinhua that Uruguay is “a country whose calling is freedom and trade and that firmly adapts to the concept of the Silk Road.”
In this sense, Bartesaghi advocated the development of a Uruguayan plan that sets out a strategy for work and progress within the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative, first recognizing the various facets of this initiative that go beyond infrastructure.
“I think that taking into account the asymmetry of the two countries, we can have different areas of mutual cooperation,” the scientist concluded.
CULTURAL EXCHANGE AND BETWEEN SOCIETIES
The exchange of students and athletes as well as cultural cooperation between the two countries have increased steadily in recent years.
“In 2010, at the age of 19, I traveled to China to learn the language after applying for a government scholarship at the University of Culture and Languages in Beijing. It was an incredible experience,” Lucía Fajardo told Xinhua.
After immersing herself in the culture, she was able to perfect the language. She then completed her degree in International Relations in Uruguay and returned to China to complete a master’s degree with a focus on Asia-Pacific at Xiamen University.
“The Chinese language and knowledge of the culture were important for my professional development,” explains Fajardo, who works in Montevideo in a timber export company whose main market is China.
In 2016, Uruguayan gymnast Víctor Rostagno arrived at the modern sports complex in Changsha, capital of central China’s Hunan Province, after a two-day journey, which contrasted with the more modest infrastructure he used in Montevideo.
He was among the first generation of Uruguayan athletes to travel to China to train under a sports cooperation agreement signed between the two governments, repeated in 2018 and 2019 and involving exchanges of technicians.
His training in China bore fruit and Rostagno became the first athlete to win medals for Uruguayan artistic gymnastics at the Pan American level of the discipline (2016) and at the 2018 South American Games.
Cheung-Koon Yim, director of the Confucius Institute of Montevideo, who came from China in 1953 at the age of 16, emphasized that the institute, managed by the University of the Republic (Udelar) and Qingdao University, has been offering activities since 2018.
“The aim is to teach the Chinese language and spread the real culture of China. It is not possible to teach a language without knowing the culture of that people,” he says.