Details of Argentine President’s trip to China that irritated the United States

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Everything indicates that when Alberto Fernandez arrives in Beijing next February 4, Argentina will not have closed the debt agreement with the IMF yet. However, the President will launch from Beijing a powerful geopolitical signal that will irritate the United States: the photo with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping at the opening of the Olympic Games and the beginning of an official visit.

Alberto Fernandez’s trip to China began to be planned more than a year ago, and the last details have been finalized. Due to protocol measures against Covid-19, a reduced official entourage of no more than 15 people will leave Buenos Aires to accompany the President under a rigorous bubble scheme but without going through quarantine.

Alberto Fernández’s visit to China will be a political signal to the United States because Xi Jinping’s administration is in a harsh commercial and political confrontation with Washington. But the government assures that the trip is part of the “diplomacy of balances” that Argentina is seeking. Alberto Fernández’s move is very daring since the United States strongly influences whether or not to close the debt agreement with the IMF.

“Beyond the agreement with the IMF, for Argentina, the relationship with China is significant and strategic. The whole world must understand this, including the United States”, said a close friend of the President who will travel to Beijing in February.

According to what senior government sources told El Cronista, the trip to China will occur between February 5 and 8. Alberto Fernández will attend the opening of the Olympic Games and an official banquet hosted by Xi Jinping for ten other invited presidents. From Latin America, only the Argentine President will travel. The American Joseph Biden was not invited, and from the European Union, only two heads of state will be in China.

Another fact to take into account during the trip: Alberto Fernández will hold bilateral meetings in Beijing with several presidents, among them the Russian Vladimir Putin, and then he will stay for two days to start an official visit with meetings with high ranking Chinese government officials and a meeting alone with Xi Jinping.

Chancellor Santiago Cafiero, together with the Secretary of Strategic Affairs, Gustavo Béliz, and the Ambassador to China, Sabino Vaca Narvaja, are finalizing the details of the visit, which will include a review of bilateral issues, investment proposals with 17 projects proposed by Argentina and all this will take place within the framework of the 50 years of trade relations between both countries.

The government assures that the decision of Alberto Fernandez to preside over CELAC, the regional body critical of Washington, is also an issue of geopolitical weight because China has deployed in the region a political strategy of substantial economic, financial, and political rapprochement.

During the trip to Beijing, Presidents Alberto Fernandez and Xi Jinping are expected to sign the formal entry of Argentina to the ambitious Chinese Silk Road program, a strong bet by China to deploy worldwide investments in infrastructure, trade, and defense cooperation. The United States flatly rejected this program, and the European Union is reluctant to sign it.

The roadmap for the trip to China also includes signing general agreements with several Chinese ministries in the framework of cooperation in agriculture, science and technology, health, production, and defense, among others.

It will also include announcements of investments by Chinese companies, ranging from the purchase of reactors from INVAP to investments in Argentine unicorns and the main course: the decision of both countries to move forward with the construction of the IV nuclear power plant in Zárate with strictly Chinese technology for an investment value of about US$8 billion.

The “Integrated Five-Year Plan” will be drawn up within the Strategic Dialogue for Economic Cooperation and Coordination framework, which is the forum where the 17 financing projects proposed to China by Argentina will be discussed.

The following Chinese investment development projects in Argentina appear there: the Nuclear Power Plant IV, the Southern Kirchner and Cepernic dams, the gas pipeline system works, the rehabilitation of the San Martin Railway System, the restoration of the Roca and Belgrano Cargas Railway Systems, the Railway Network Modernization Plan, the development project of drinking water treatment plants and aqueducts, the Caucasian photovoltaic park, the Caucasian photovoltaic park, the San Martín Railway System, the Roca Railway System and the Belgrano Cargas Railway System, the modernization plan of the railway networks, and the project for the development of drinking water treatment plants and aqueducts, the Cauchari 4 and 5 photovoltaic park, the Chaco/Corrientes and Santa Fe/Paraná bridges, road corridors and improvements, connectivity and fiber optic programs, electric transmission and distribution works, the Zarate Energy Pole-Power Plants, housing and habitat programs and the Cerro Arauco wind farm.

In the document sent from Buenos Aires to Beijing, item 18 appears under the heading “others to be defined/Chinese proposal”. Some of the works mentioned have already been under negotiation for many years, even since Vice President Cristina Kirchner sealed in 2010 the comprehensive strategic alliance with China as President. However, some proposals lack details in the title.