China’s President Xi Jinping (right) attends a meeting with Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro at Miraflores Palace in Caracas. Chinese President arrived on Sunday in Venezuela, the third leg of a Latin American tour aimed at bolstering trade with the region and sealing energy deals.

AFP/Reuters/Havana

 

Chinese President Xi Jinping begins a two-day visit to Cuba yesterday evening, stirring hopes on the island that China will finally invest in the country after a number of important deals never materialised.

Xi is to meet with President Raul Castro  today and then fly to Santiago de Cuba to see plans to improve port facilities and recovery efforts from Hurricane Sandy, which devastated Cuba’s second city almost two years ago.

Xi was in Brazil last week for a summit of the Brics nations, which also includes Russia, India and South Africa. He then travelled to Argentina and Venezuela, signing a raft of multi-billion dollar credit and investment agreements, before stopping in Cuba on his way home.

Communist-run China and Cuba are close political allies. Generous trade credits have made China the island’s largest creditor and second biggest trade partner after Venezuela at $1.4bn last year.

China has rescheduled Cuba’s government and commercial debt, believed to top $6bn. But large investment agreements for the nickel industry, signed in 2000, another in hotels, and a deal to expand an oil refinery agreed five years ago, have not materialised.Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived on Sunday in Venezuela, the third leg of a Latin American tour aimed at bolstering trade with the region and sealing energy deals.

The Chinese leader’s charm offensive, which has already taken him to Brazil and Argentina and will next bring him to Cuba, seeks to secure new bilateral trade deals, particularly for coveted raw materials.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro greeted Xi as he landed at the Maiquetia airport that serves Caracas, with dozens of dancers and musicians performing traditional musical pieces.

Following a visit to the tomb of revolutionary leader Simon Bolivar, Xi met with Maduro and address reporters. Yesterday, he met with the leader of the National Assembly, Diosdado Cabello, and signed a series of agreements with the Venezuelan government.

During the nearly 15 years that late president Hugo Chavez was in power, China became a strategic ally of Venezuela in America’s backyard.

China is the second largest buyer of Venezuelan oil, with an average daily volume of 640,000 barrels, in part to pay off Venezuela’s debt of around $17bn.

Both countries aim to increase the number of exports in the coming years to one million barrels a day.

Xi hopes to further develop his country’s strategic relationship with Venezuela, just as Caracas’s ties with the US - the region’s traditional political and economic powerhouse - are arguably at their lowest point ever.

The countries, which have not had ambassadors in each other’s capitals since 2010, had poor relations during the leadership of late president Hugo Chavez and ties have remained strained under his successor, Maduro.

By contrast, relations have been warming between China and Venezuela where bilateral trade has been steadily rising, exceeding $20bn in 2012.

Xi’s visit to Caracas is sandwiched between the Chinese leader’s triumphant stay in Argentina, where he secured several major trade deals, and travel to longtime communist ally Cuba.  Yesterday, Xi heads to Cuba, where he is to announce plans to build a factory producing “biosensors” for monitoring the blood of diabetics and other patients suffering from chronic illness, Cuban media reported.

He will spend two days in Cuba, the last stop of his tour.

A group of Chinese business leaders who have expressed a strong interest in investing in the communist island will be accompanying Xi, reports said.

During his three-day Argentine visit, Xi and President Cristina Kirchner signed more than 20 trade deals in hydropower, marine and rail industries worth $7bn.

The two nations also announced Chinese plans for huge investment in hydroelectric power, shipbuilding, railways and a deal to help Argentina build its fourth nuclear plant.

Beijing will contribute $4.4bn toward the construction of two hydroelectric dams in Argentina’s southern Santa Cruz province and an additional $2.1bn to remodel strategic rail transportation for carrying goods, especially food.

And it will provide $423mn for the construction of 11 ships.

China is Argentina’s third-largest trading partner behind the South American Mercosur bloc and the European Union, and one of its main destinations for food exports.

Xi also was in Brazil last week for a summit of the Brics group of emerging powers – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – and South American presidents.  The gathering saw the countries agree to launch a New Development Bank to fund infrastructure projects in developing nations as well as an emergency reserve, drawing praise from Latin American leaders who see them as alternatives to Western-dominated financial institutions.

 

 

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