Premier to boost relations with Latin America

Premier Wen Jiabao left Beijing on Tuesday for the United Nations Rio+20 conference on sustainable development and a visit to Brazil, Chile, Uruguay and Argentina to boost ties and cooperation with Latin American countries.

Wen will outline China's policies on sustainable development when he addresses the UN conference, to be held from Wednesday to Friday in Rio de Janeiro of Brazil, his first stop, Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs Xie Hangsheng told reporters at a news briefing.

"The development of green economy will be a long-term and daunting task, we believe the international community should strengthen cooperation in this area and avoid shortcomings," Xie said.

"It is necessary to provide a favorable external environment for developing countries, in particular support for financing, technology and capacity-building," Xie said.

Beijing has long insisted on the principle of "common but differentiated responsibilities" of developed and developing nations.

"Our position is when establishing sustainable development goals, the Rio principles should be adhered to, especially 'common but differentiated responsibilities'," said Tan Jian of the Foreign Ministry's Department of International Organizations and Conferences.

A series of agreements are expected to be signed with each country including bilateral cooperation on agriculture and quarantine, according to Xie.

Wen's visit to Brazil will help cement a closer comprehensive partnership between the two countries, said Clodoaldo Hugueney, Brazil's ambassador to China.

The visit is also expected to yield concrete results because the two emerging economies have intensified their cooperation in trade and technology sectors, Hugueney told China Daily on June 6 in an exclusive interview ahead of Wen's visit.

"Brazil and China are expected to sign an agreement on developing a new generation of satellites during Wen's visit to Brazil," he said.

The agricultural sector is also a very important channel for the two countries to expand their trade volume, he said.

"We want to be a long-term supplier of meat and sausage to China, since Brazil is the largest meat exporter in the world," he said.

"We are still finalizing the deals in a bid to extend cooperation in the space industry, infrastructure construction, energy and other fields. The broad range reflects the nature of our cooperation," he said.

"We have long expected Premier Wen to visit Brazil. His visit reflects a close, high-level political relationship and will focus the political dialogue on global issues on a high level," he said.

Brazil, the most distant country from China of BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) nations, has enjoyed closer economic ties with China than the others.

According to the Ministry of Commerce, bilateral trade between China and Brazil grew 35 percent in 2011 compared to 2010 and reached $84 billion.

China has been Brazil's largest trade partner since 2009 due to the South American nation's huge exports in energy and agricultural commodities. China is also the largest foreign investor of Brazil.

Not only Brazil, but all South American and Caribbean countries "heartily welcome" China's economic presence in the region, Hugueney said. "There are great complementary factors within our economies, because our natural resources can attract large Chinese investments, and we also need Chinese commodities.

"What we should do most is to ensure that the growth in bilateral trade continues at the rate it has averaged for the last decade. I'm sure there are very good prospects," the ambassador said.

Cooperation between the two countries will safeguard a peaceful and stable world system and play a positive role in composing a new multipolar global order, he said.

Contact the writers at [email protected] and [email protected]