Chancellor Ribera meets his Chinese counterpart with the aim of deepening the bilateral relationship
A productive work meeting was held today between Chancellor Teodoro Ribera and China's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Wang Yi, who is visiting our country. The meeting, held at the Chilean Ministry of Foreign Affairs, addressed the main aspects of the bilateral agenda. "We have coincided in a positive evaluation of our similarities in the political sphere, and of the significant statistics that reveal the importance of bilateral trade and investments," the Secretary of State said in a statement to the press at the end of the meeting.
The gathering also noted the "mutual interest in broadening relations of cooperation on issues of the future, and to strengthen contacts between our nations. Likewise, specific actions were taken to facilitate the implementation of the cooperation agreements that allow for the materialization of the initiatives of the 14 work areas that make up 2019-2022 Joint Action Plan, signed in April of this year and which seeks to strategically plan the promotion of bilateral relations, articulate development strategies and promote development and cooperation.
Minister Ribera also stressed that Chile is already part of the Strip and Route initiative and recalled that the President of the Republic, Sebastián Piñera, participated in the second forum of this instance, held in Beijing, being the only Latin American leader present. "This reflects the importance that this initiative has for Chile, as well as the confidence deposited by China in our country, with the mutual interest of favoring China's ties with Latin American countries," he said.
On the other hand, the Chancellor affirmed that they exchanged points of view "on issues of interest with respect to regional situations, and the will to advance in the common work for the expansion of free trade and the generation of an international system based on clear and transparent rules". They also discussed the agenda of the COP 25, to be held in Santiago in December this year. In this regard, Minister Ribera thanked "China's resolute support for the success of this instance against climate change".
The Secretary of State also confirmed that to the fifth version of Chile Week in China, which will take place between August 29 and September 4 in the cities of Beijing and Shanghai, Chile will send "a mission of the highest level headed by former President Eduardo Frei as Ambassador of the Special Mission to Asia Pacific, as a way to strengthen our ties and give greater visibility to our country in China.
Finally, the Minister highlighted that 2020 will commemorate 50 years of uninterrupted diplomatic relations between the two countries. In that sense, he indicated that "we agreed to give it a real enhancement, doing special activities that, in short, highlight the fact that Chile was the first country in South America to recognize the government of the People's Republic of China as the legitimate government of that state.
