‘Acting president: Argentina wishes to actively develop strategic partnership
with China’

MENDOZA—Argentina’s Acting President Julio Cobos on Friday expressed his country’s willingness to actively develop its strategic partnership with China.
At the Mendoza grape wine festival here, Cobos told Xinhua that in recent years, bilateral trade between the two nations has developed so rapidly that China has now become Argentina’s largest trade partner in Asia, while an increasing investment by Chinese enterprises in Argentina has created a large number of job opportunities for local people.
China’s fast economic development has also offered valuable opportunities for Argentine products’ export, the president said. For instance, the Chinese market used to weigh minimal for Argentina’s grape wine export, but now it has become one of the major markets for Argentine wine, and it’s still expanding at an astonishing speed. Both as developing countries, Argentina and China have similar views and interests on many international issues, he said. The two nations have been supportive to each other and have enhanced consultations on international affairs, jointly contributing to regional and world peace, the president added. Cobos expressed the hope that the two nations would further strengthen exchange and cooperation in various fields, and push the bilateral strategic partnership to a higher level.
Argentine President Christina Fernandez endorsed Tuesday a project to purchase rolling stock worth 124 million U.S. dollars from China, officials said.
Argentina plans to buy 24 multiple unit trains and 160 railway cars through China’s Shanghai Golden Source International Economic and Trade Development Co., LTD, they said.
All the trains and rail cars will be used to upgrade the rolling stock operating on a major railline in Buenos Aires. President Fernandez described the project will play a vital role in Argentina’s economic and social progress, describing it as an important step forward for the country’s railroad service. She also pledged her government’s continued efforts to improve public works that bear on people’s daily life. This has been the first major endeavor by the government to upgrade Argentina’s rolling stock since 1983, local media reported. The first batch of new trains from China is expected to go into operation late this year or early next year, said the report. —Xinhua