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China Ran Across Latin America Before Russia
The Latin America’s tour of Chinese President Hu Jintao began yesterday November 17, 2008; the agenda sets forth visits to Costa Rica, Cuba and Peru. By strange coincidence, Russia’s President Dmitry Medvedev will go to Latin America in the end of this week. The results of both trips will show which of two countries is leading in the race for influencing the region.
The route of Chinese President Hu Jintao to Latin America wasn’t very long – he went to Costa Rica straight after the Washington summit of G20. Hu Jintao is due to visit Cuba today and move to Peru, which hosts the APEC summit in the weekend.
Medvedev’s tour to Latin America had been planned for the second half of November, but for some reason, Russia’s president preferred not to begin it straight after the Washington event. He will start his Latin America’s campaign from the APEC summit, going to Brazil, Venezuela and Cuba in the next effort.
The set of countries visited by Chinese president doesn’t appear particularly impressive if compared with Medvedev’s choice. The stop in Costa Rica was well predictable, as exactly that country broke off the 60-year diplomatic relations with Taiwan past June and established relations with China. In return, Beijing acquired local government’s bonds worth $300 million and built a stadium in Costa Rica’s capital, spending $73 million for that purpose. Yesterday, Hu Jintao and his Costa Rica's counterpart Oscar Arias deliberated on the chances to conclude a free trade agreement. In Beijing, they apparently count that the gifts of such generosity will be noted by 12 Caribbean neighbors of Costa Rica that still recognize Taiwan.
Hu Jintao arrives today in Cuba, where China’s standing has materially strengthened since the Soviet Union’s collapse. China emerged past year as the second trade partner of Cuba, yielding the leadership only to Venezuela.
The presence of China’s business could be easily noted even in the states to be visited by Russia’s president. Meanwhile, most of Russia’s cooperation proposals, the ones that Vice Premier Igor Sechin discussed during his three visits are far from the implementation state. Amid them are the ambitions project for setting up an oil consortium of Venezuela’s PdVSA and Russia’s Gazprom, Rosneft, LUKOIL, TNK-BP and Surgutneftegaz.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Nov. 18, 2008
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