theDrahos

Following their meeting May 22 in Lima, Peruvian President Ollanta Humala and China’s Premier Li Keqiang signed ten bilateral agreements, raising to a new level their existing Comprehensive Strategic Association. In a May 21 statement, Li described the relationship with Peru in these terms:

Chief among the agreements signed was the Memorandum of Understanding signed by Brazil’s Transportation Ministry, Peru’s Transportation Ministry, and China’s National Reform and Development Commission to begin the feasibility study on the building of the transcontinental railroad between Brazil’s Atlantic Coast and Peru’s Pacific Coast. In his comments on the project, Humala stressed that it would “consolidate the local economies of Brazil, China, and Peru,” and be crucial for transporting Chinese cargo entering South America. Li’s focus was broader, affirming that the train would increase the connectivity of, particularly, South America’s Pacific nations with China, adding that it would also promote “a new type of industrialization and urbanization of the South American continent.”

Other agreements span areas of energy, mining, aerospace, agriculture and education, with special emphasis on the need to increase Chinese investment in Peru’s industrial development and “productive capabilities” and ensure technology transfer. In the two leaders’ private meeting May 22, they stressed that cooperation in these areas is particularly important, given the fragile state of the global economy and its effects on South American economies. Their joint communiqué outlines a number of industrial areas in which China plans to invest, including energy generation, petrochemicals, and metallurgy, among others. As Li emphasized in his May 21 statement, energetically promoting China’s investment in Peruvian industry, to give “new vigor to Peru’s economic development,” will bring “mutual benefit and a [strengthen] a win-win” relationship.

Throughout Li’s trip, he pointed to the special bond between the two nations, given Peru’s large population of Chinese descent, and its millenarian Inca civilization, in which Li showed great interest. He noted that Peru was one of the first nations to welcome thousands of Chinese immigrants in the 19th and 20th centuries, and had been one of the first South American nations to establish diplomatic relations with “the new China.” Peruvians, he added, “tend to call the Chinese their paisanos, deepening our sense of affection and warmth, and demonstrating a friendship rooted in the deepest part of our hearts.”