General

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Argentina, as well as the Year of China-Argentina Friendly Cooperation. In the past 50 years, the bilateral trade volume between the two countries has increased by 2,333 times. Experts and scholars from the two countries generally believe that the successful development experience of China's reform and opening up and Chinese programs such as the "Belt and Road" initiative will promote multi-field cooperation between China and Argentina, and help international trade to reach new heights.

A model of Latin American countries

Argentina has always insisted on the depoliticization of sports. This year, Argentine President Fernandez led a delegation to attend the opening ceremony of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.

When meeting with Fernandez, Chinese President Xi Jinping pointed out that China and Afghanistan have always understood and supported each other for half a century. In the face of the epidemic, we stand together and help each other, setting a model of solidarity and cooperation among emerging market countries.

Fernandez expressed his gratitude to China for providing a large amount of medical supplies and vaccines during the critical period of Afghanistan's fight against the epidemic, and hoped to continue to strengthen cooperation with China in vaccine and pharmaceutical production.

As a natural extension of the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, Latin America is an indispensable and important participant in the construction of the "Belt and Road". As a major country in Latin America, Argentina's participation in the construction of the "Belt and Road" has long been its eager expectation. During his visit to China, Fernandez signed a memorandum of understanding with China to jointly build the "Belt and Road" and officially joined the "Belt and Road" family.

In this regard, Sun Yanfeng, deputy director of the Latin American Institute of the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, said that the signing of the "Belt and Road" memorandum of understanding is a huge boost for Sino-Arab relations, and also provides a positive model for other major economies in Latin America.

In the past five years, China and Argentina have signed 13 agricultural trade agreements, and Argentina's cherries, pears, apples, meat, honey and dried fruits have been sold to China in large quantities. At the same time, China is also increasing its investment in Afghanistan in infrastructure such as energy and transportation. Gao Feng, a spokesman for the Ministry of Commerce, pointed out that Afghanistan is an important contracting project market for China in Latin America, and the cooperation between the two parties involves fields such as hydropower, railways, energy and communications. According to data from the Ministry of Commerce, in 2021, the bilateral trade volume between China and Argentina will increase by 28.3% year-on-year to US$17.83 billion, and China will continue to maintain its status as Argentina's second largest international trading partner.

"In the future, the two sides will have more communication and coordination on macroeconomic policies, and further docking in development strategies and planning, including creating a better foundation and conditions for bilateral cooperation by promoting people-to-people bonds and infrastructure connectivity." Business Zhang Jianping, deputy director of the Academic Committee of the Ministry of Education, said.

Mariano Mosgueira, director of the Belt and Road Research Center at the Catholic University of Córdoba in Argentina, believes that China's reform and opening-up policy can be called "the most successful public policy formulated in modern society". Among them, the establishment of special economic zones is one of the key policies for the success of China's reform and opening up. Its operation mode, especially the innovation of ideas, has had a profound impact on the establishment of special economic zones around the world today. The “Belt and Road” initiative, the building of a community with a shared future for mankind, and China-Latin American and Caribbean countries and other Chinese programs will enable Latin American countries to gain access to China’s infrastructure, transportation, energy, mining, manufacturing, agriculture, innovation and information technology. important investment and support in the field, to achieve internal, regional and global interconnection among relevant countries, so that Latin American countries can better integrate into the international market and enhance the international trade competitiveness of their products.

Afghanistan's economy faces "three mountains"

Argentina is considered to be under the spell of "crisis in ten years". The country has long suffered from "chronic diseases" of high unemployment, high inflation and high foreign debt. Coupled with the impact of the epidemic, the political and economic situation is even worse. According to data from the Argentine Institute for Social Development, by the end of 2021, the inflation rate in Argentina is as high as 50.9%, and social problems represented by unemployment and poverty are emerging one after another.

The report pointed out that the Afghan economy will face three major challenges in 2022: the impact of the epidemic, debt negotiations and the international situation.

In terms of debt negotiations, the IMF asked the Afghan government to accelerate the completion of fiscal austerity and achieve fiscal balance by 2024, while the Afghan government insisted on a "step-by-step" strategy to ensure its economic recovery. At the beginning of this year, the two sides initially reached a debt restructuring agreement worth 44.5 billion US dollars, which will help Afghanistan's economic stability. The new agreement shows that the IMF has extended the loan repayment period and provided a grace period of four and a half years and a ten-year repayment period. According to the agreement, Afghanistan promised to reduce the fiscal deficit to 2.5% of GDP this year, and gradually reduce it to 1.9% and 0.9% by 2023 and 2024, respectively. It is expected that in 2022, Afghanistan's international reserves will increase by 5 billion US dollars.

"The new agreement has eased the pressure on debts that are due this year and next, allowing the recovery of the Afghan economy to continue. At the same time, the Afghan government will not reduce actual fiscal expenditure and will increase investment in public works." Afghan Minister of Economy Guzman disclose.

According to a survey report released by the Argentine Federation of Industry, nearly 80% of foreign trade companies in Argentina have fallen into operational difficulties due to increased costs due to the spillover effect of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict and the epidemic. The main problems encountered by the affected companies are the sharp increase in freight costs due to rising international prices of energy products such as crude oil, and the shortage of containers caused by poor global logistics.

Recently, when talking about the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, Fernandez said that Afghanistan is worried about the economic crisis caused by the conflict, and the economic sanctions against Russia have caused everyone to "suffer". He revealed that Afghanistan is developing the first natural gas pipeline to achieve gas self-sufficiency, and will build a liquefaction plant in the next few years.

In this regard, the assistant researcher of the Latin American Institute of the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations pointed out that at present, Argentina urgently needs to attract international investment and increase international trade exports.

China-Arab cooperation moves towards diversification

Meng Haiyun, Deputy Secretary of State for Bilateral and Multilateral Negotiations at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Afghanistan and an expert on China issues, said that China's rapid development and domestic consumption diversification, China and Afghanistan's continuous improvement of understanding, and the two sides' continuous expansion of economic complementarity are the achievements of the cooperation between the two countries. The driving force behind the improvement and upgrading of bilateral relations. She pointed out that there is still huge potential for cooperation between the two countries in the fields of food, minerals, renewable energy and infrastructure, and Afghanistan is trying to diversify its cooperation with China.

China and Afghanistan have continuously improved the coordination and strategic dialogue mechanism, which has provided an important guarantee for the smooth progress of bilateral cooperation in various fields. Currently, there are 9 standing committees and 20 mixed committees between the two countries. On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Argentina, the establishment of the China Chamber of Commerce (Argentina) was announced. Zou Xiaoli, Chinese Ambassador to Afghanistan, said at the inauguration ceremony that the Chinese and Arab business circles have always been an important force in supporting, participating and promoting the friendly cooperation between the two countries. The official establishment of the China Chamber of Commerce (Argentina) is a milestone in the development history of Chinese-funded enterprises in Argentina.

Previously, China and Argentina have signed currency swap agreements five times, and the RMB has become an important foreign exchange reserve of Argentina. This move has effectively promoted bilateral financial cooperation and provided important financial support for bilateral trade exchanges. This year, China and Afghanistan reiterated that they will continue to cooperate closely on local currency swaps and encourage both sides to use more local currencies for settlement in trade and investment.

"In the future, the cooperation between China and Argentina will become more and more diversified. Argentina is relatively close to the Antarctic, and the two sides jointly promote the cooperative development and scientific research of Antarctica to be further expanded." Zhang Jianping said.

Argentina is one of the few South American countries that has the climatic conditions to carry out winter sports and participate in the Winter Olympics. There are many ski resorts in the south of the country, which can not only be used by Argentina, but also other Latin American countries to carry out winter tourism and winter sports in these places. Niu Wangdao, the Algerian ambassador to China, said that in the future, China and Algeria will jointly build more ski trails and other winter sports infrastructure, which will not only promote the development of winter sports, but also promote winter tourism. This year, China and Arab states will jointly establish a football school in China to introduce Afghan coaches and technicians to provide training for Chinese football players. He believes that sports cooperation will become the main content of future cooperation between the two parties.