Argentine Foreign Minister Mundino recently led a delegation to visit China, which lasted five days. In the itinerary briefed by the Arab side, it was only disclosed that Mondino would hold talks with Foreign Minister Wang Yi. But in fact, on the third day of Mondino's visit to China, she met with the Chinese high-level officials. #军史观察团#
In fact, when introducing Mundino's visit to China, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs stressed that China regards Argentina as an important cooperative partner. This shows that even though the Milley government has made some noises about Sino-Arab relations, as long as Mundino visits China with sincerity, we are still willing to work with the Arab side to promote the in-depth development of bilateral relations. From this point of view, China's high-level reception of Mondino is obviously a manifestation of the importance it attaches to consolidating friendly relations with Argentina.
Of course, the Arab side did not disappoint the Chinese side. After the high-level meeting with the Chinese side, Mondino stressed in person that cooperation with China is very important to Argentina. Although Argentine President Milley has changed his attitude towards China, he has only stopped at promising that it will not hinder the Argentine business community from cooperating with China. In short, before Montino's visit to China, the Milley government showed more of a preference for ensuring that Sino-Arab economic and trade cooperation would not be affected too much.
But with Mondino's visit to China, the situation is clearly different. Although, as expected, during his visit to China, Mondino talked about the hope that Chinese companies would invest in Afghanistan. At the same time, however, Mondino also stressed that the Azerbaijani side will firmly adhere to the "one China" principle. Such a commitment shows that, in addition to economic and trade aspects, Argentina also hopes to maintain friendly relations with China politically.
As for why Argentina changed its rhetoric on Sino-Arab relations at this time, we speculate that it is mainly Argentina that wants China. It can also be seen from the governor of the Argentine Central Bank and the vice minister of the Ministry of Economy who accompanied Mondino that the Milley government sent a delegation to visit China for two purposes, the first is to discuss trade cooperation with China, and the second is about currency swaps. And these cooperation will directly determine whether Argentina can alleviate the inflation problem and the debt crisis.
It is worth mentioning that at the swearing-in meeting at the end of last year, there was news that China had suspended the currency swap agreement with the Arab side. At that time, in order to fully embrace the dollar, Milley directly implemented a policy of devaluing the peso. Such a policy has undoubtedly greatly increased the risk of currency swaps between China and Argentina. So if we follow normal logic, we are cautious about the agreement, it will work completely.
For Argentina, however, such news came like a bolt from the blue. On the one hand, the Fed is still raising interest rates to harvest capital all over the world, which means that Argentina could face a shortage of dollars at any time. And if the dollar is insufficient, Argentina will not be able to repay its debts. On the other hand, Argentina has a precedent of using the renminbi to repay debts, and if there is a problem with the currency swap between China and Argentina, it is equivalent to blocking the back road.
In addition to clarifying with China that there is no problem with the Sino-Arab space cooperation project and refusing to cooperate with the United States, even Milley himself has personally stated that no one is unwilling to cooperate with China. When Mondino came to China this time, the wording changed even more, directly using the word "very important".
However, considering that Argentina has not long made such a move as applying to join NATO, I am afraid that the Milley government will still have to pursue a balanced policy between China and the United States in order to maximize its interests. For example, when Argentina applied to join NATO, they received $40 million in financing from the United States. At the same time, Argentina's strengthened military ties with the United States based on NATO's framework could also give the country more leverage with Britain on the Falklands issue.
On the surface, these developments seem to be in Argentina's interests, but they also reflect from the side that Western countries, led by the United States, obviously have a lot of weight in Milley's foreign policy. In this way, once the United States exerts influence on Argentina or offers advantages to win over it, the latter may not necessarily backtrack on China.
Therefore, if the Arab side wants to ensure the sustained and stable development of China-Arab relations, it is not enough to just pay lip service to friendly gestures. Only by taking more concrete actions can we regain confidence in cooperation with Argentina. Otherwise, whether it is a currency swap between China and Argentina or China's investment in Argentina, there will be no guarantee. While considering its own interests, the Arab side should also take actions to dispel any concerns that China may have.