Zhang Jieyu: The CELAC summit boosts regional cooperation and the development of China-Latin America relations
Author: Zhang Jieyu, Institute of Latin American and Caribbean Studies, China Institute of International Studies
Source: Workers Daily, September 29, 8th edition of the "Pipe Peeping the World" column
WeChat platform editor: Zhou Yue
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Against the background of the difficult progress of Latin American integration, the smooth convening of the CELAC summit is a powerful response to the decline of Latin American voices. The summit reached a series of agreements and consensuses that will help promote CELAC to exert greater regional influence. China-Latin America cooperation is also expected to develop further.
On 18 September, the Sixth Summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (HEREINB) was held in Mexico City, attended by representatives of 31 countries from the region, including 18 heads of State or Government.
It has been more than a decade since the establishment of CELAC, but since 2018, the largest community organization in Latin America has been in trouble for a time, shutting down for nearly three years. At present, Latin America is still under multiple pressures such as epidemic prevention and control and economic recovery, and the leaders of various countries can break through many obstacles and gather together, which is tantamount to a "clarion call" for the Latin American people to unite and win, and also a powerful response to the decline of the West and Latin America.
Progress in Latin American integration has been difficult
As the regional organization with the highest participation of Latin American countries, the original intention of THE ESTABLISHMENT of CELAC was to continue the historical will of "The Liberator of South America" Simon Bolivar to "establish a unified Spanish-speaking America" and to gather and bring into full play the cohesion and action of Latin American countries to the greatest extent. However, in recent years, the process of Latin American integration has been difficult to progress, especially in the case of intensified ideological differences, the contradictions between all parties have once again become prominent, and countries with strong hostilities have even staged a "mutual tearing" war.
The summit site is full of gunpowder. In their speeches, the Presidents of Paraguay and Uruguay openly questioned the democratic legitimacy of Venezuela and Cuba, Venezuelan President Maduro immediately fought back, calling for a democratic debate with President Abdou of Pakistan, president of the Communist Party of Cuba (CPCR) Díaz-Canel publicly criticizing Ukrainian President Lacalé for "knowing nothing" about the reality of Cuba; the Foreign Minister of Nicaragua accused the Argentine government of becoming an "instrument of US imperialism" and opposed Açonne's assumption of the rotating presidency of CELAC, while Argentina continued to support the United Nations report on human rights violations committed by the Nepalese government.
In addition, Brazil, a former MEMBER of CELAC, chose to withdraw from the group at the insistence of President Bolsonaro at the beginning of last year, on the grounds that ITC has given "a prominent position to the non-democratic regime", which has led to the continued white-hot contradictions between Brazil and the left-wing countries in the region.
Similar to CELAC, other regional organizations in Latin America, which were once active, now face the dilemma of whether to stay or where to go.
The leadership of the Union of South American Nations, founded by a left-wing government, has been in a "vacuum" for many years, while the south american progressive forum, which was vigorously promoted by the right-wing forces to replace the South American Union of Nations, has gradually failed, the influence of the Bolivarian Union of the Americas has weakened, and the Mercosur, which aims at economic and trade integration, has recently been paralyzed by differences in policy ideas among countries.
The summit achieved many results
Although the process of Latin American integration has encountered difficulties, the results achieved by the CELAC Summit are obvious to all, both at the practical level and in terms of its symbolic significance.
On the one hand, in the spirit of pragmatic cooperation, the participating countries have signed a total of 44 agreements, large and small, reached a series of consensus on addressing climate change, covid-19 vaccine research and development and space technology cooperation, and unanimously approved and adopted the "Self-Sufficiency Plan for Health Affairs in Latin America and the Caribbean", established a natural disaster response fund and raised 15 million US dollars for this purpose, and decided to establish the Latin American and Caribbean Space Agency.
On the other hand, Mexico, which has dual status as a regional left power and the rotating presidency of CELAC, is quietly returning to its position as a diplomatic leader, and the influence of the Organization of American States as the spokesman for the "Monroe Doctrine" is likely to be difficult to continue.
Since the Trump administration, the United States has paid much more attention to its traditional "backyard" Latin America, using the tactics of "pulling and playing" and "carrots and sticks" to force Latin American countries to choose sides between China and the United States. The Biden administration has inherited and strengthened its predecessor's policy toward Latin America, and relations between the United States and Latin American countries, especially with Mexico, have become tense, and the issue of border immigration has raised tensions in U.S.-Mexico relations again.
Against this backdrop, Mexico has begun to seek its own path of development, and its successful re-election as the rotating presidency of CELAC this year has injected confidence and impetus into Mexico's journey to return to a regional power. At the celebration of the 200th anniversary of the victory of the Mexican War of Independence and the 238th anniversary of the birth of Bolívar, Mexican President López repeatedly bluntly said that "the Organization of American States is obsolete" and alluded to it as an "American lackey" and a tool for the United States to exercise hegemonism and power politics in Latin America.
At the summit, López insisted that the leaders of Venezuela and Cuba attend and speak, intended to downplay the dispute between Venezuela and Cuba, advocate the complete cancellation of the unilateral sanctions and blockade policy of the United States against Cuba and Venezuela and other countries, and issued a warm invitation to Chinese President Xi Jinping for a video message.
It is foreseeable that CELAC may grow into a counterweight to the OAS.
China-Latin America cooperation has entered a new era
In his speech to the summit, President Xi Jinping stressed that after the changes in the international situation, China-Latin America relations have entered a new era of equality, mutual benefit, innovation, openness and benefiting the people. These five keywords are not only a high-level summary of China-Latin America relations, but also a beautiful prospect for the community of common destiny between China and Latin America. People from many Latin American countries said that President Xi Jinping's speech inherits the past and opens up the future. Mackay, dean of the Peruvian Institute of International Law and International Relations, said that President Xi Jinping's speech was extremely wise and strategic. Recarado, a researcher at the Cuban Centre for International Political Studies, believes that this important speech affirms the important role played by CELAC in promoting regional peace and stability and promoting common development.
In the second policy document on Latin America issued by the Chinese side in 2016, it was clearly stated for the first time that adhering to overall cooperation and mutual promotion of bilateral relations should be regarded as a strategic path for the development of China-Latin America relations. Since the outbreak of the new crown epidemic, China has held special video conferences on epidemic response with Latin American and Caribbean countries on many occasions, and held the second China-Latin America Science and Technology Innovation Forum and the Sixth China-Latin America Infrastructure Cooperation Forum under the overall cooperation framework of China and Latin America, which have all promoted the mechanism of the China-Latin America forum to shine new brilliance and are of great significance to leading the development of China-Latin America relations in the post-epidemic era.
*Disclaimer: This article only represents the personal views of the author and does not represent the position of this official account
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