The Chinese Foreign Ministry declared this Tuesday (11/21/2023) that it would be a “big mistake” for Argentina to cut ties with “countries as big as Brazil and China”, a possibility suggested in recent months by the elected president of Argentina, Javier Milei. , and by some of his collaborators.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning thus responded to recent statements to the Russian agency Sputnik by Milei’s foreign policy advisor, Diana Mondino, who assured: “we will stop interfering with the Government of Brazil and China.”
The spokesperson surmised that there are “discrepancies” about the meaning of Mondino’s words – whose name sounds like a possible Foreign Minister of the new Argentine Government – and asserted that “no country can separate diplomatic relations from the development of economic and commercial cooperation.” .
Mao recalled in a press conference that “China is Argentina’s second trading partner and the first export market for its agricultural products.”
Great potential for cooperation
“The two sides have strong economic complementarity and great potential for cooperation,” the spokesperson added.
According to Sputnik, Mondino noted that “the relationship with both countries – in reference to China and Brazil – will be excellent as it should be”, but that “we must distinguish what the Government is from what the State is.”
China congratulated Milei on Monday and assured that it remained willing to work with Argentina to “continue the friendship between the two countries.”
Two years ago, Milei assured that he “would not do business with China” and stated that cutting relations with the Asian giant “would not be a macroeconomic tragedy.”
ct (efe, reuters)
