It is a month of celebration in the Sino-Argentinian bilateral relationship. On February 19, the two countries celebrated half a century of diplomatic relations, an opportunity to make 2022 “the year of friendship and cooperation between Argentina and China”. Two weeks earlier, on Sunday February 6, Buenos Aires and Beijing had signed a memorandum of adhesion to the “New Silk Roads”, a vast project of investments in infrastructure and technology from China, encompassing nearly 150 countries, tool of its influence throughout the world. “We value the deep and sustained bond of Sino-Argentinian relations (…) I will remember the warm welcome of the Chinese people”, greets Argentinian President Alberto Fernandez (center left) on Twitter.
He has just announced the amounts of the investments, in two parts. The first, “already approved”, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, amounting to 14 billion dollars (about 12.7 billion euros), includes ten infrastructure projects – including the key projects of the hydroelectric power station of the Santa Cruz river and the power station nuclear IV in Zarate. The second, of 9.7 billion dollars, still subject to validation, has a total of 16 projects, combining aqueducts, hydroelectric complex, highway, or even wind farms, according to official Argentine sources.
Renewal of investments
On what horizon? No date is indicated. “One of the central projects is the gas pipeline system (…) in order to achieve self-supply of gas throughout the country”, detail these same sources, on condition of anonymity, but taking care to detail the manna for the country: 3,000 direct and indirect jobs for the start-up, 1,200 jobs thanks to the new production to be transported. Nearly 2 billion dollars of investment. The two countries have also signed a series “institutional cooperation documents”, in different fields, from education to agriculture, “public communication media” or even nuclear energy.
“If in Argentina there is one thing that is stable, over the course of governments, it is the relationship with China” Patricio Giusto, researcher
This surge in investment – a boon as Argentina recovers from three years of recession and struggles with an economy crippled by inflation and poverty – was expected. The two countries deepen here a rapprochement undertaken in the 1990s. Beijing is then much more interested in the countries of South America. “The latter mainly supply China with soybeans, minerals and oil. Since the 2010s, China has been investing in it increasingly to meet its raw material needs,” recall Marie Forget and Silvina Carrizo in an analysis for the Presses de Sciences Po dating from 2015. It was in particular in 2004 that the government of Nestor Kirchner (left) signed various multilateral agreements, which can be read in the light of a diversification of international relations, in counterpoint to the link with the United States, the main contributor to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), held partly responsible for the 2001 crisis.
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