By Alejandra Garcia on January 16, 2022
2022 marked a new path of brotherhood and cooperation between Nicaragua and China. On January 10, just one month after the two countries re-established diplomatic relations, Presidents Daniel Ortega and Xi Jinping announced Managua’s adherence to China’s Belt and Road initiative.
The news excited the Latin American nation and made headlines in each of its local outlets. “Beijing will be the new route,” read the newspapers of that nation that has just reconfirmed its willingness to keep Ortega as president for a fourth consecutive term.
“Our priority will be to boost economic development and continue the march we undertook almost a decade ago when I first came into office in 2007. The Chinese Revolution and the Sandinista Revolution have the same path and destiny: to eradicate poverty,” Ortega said from Managua during his swearing-in ceremony on January 10.
Nicaragua is in the center of America, and its coasts are bathed by the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, a strategic position for global trade.
Therefore, according to Nicaraguan Finance Minister Ivan Acosta, his country’s adhesion to the Belt and Road initiative will allow, in the medium term, to utilize our geographical position, and enhance direct maritime route with China.
“To our left, we have the Pacific Ocean, in front of China, and to the right, there is the Caribbean Sea, which leads us to the Atlantic Ocean. This allows us to be at the center of all trade mobilization between Latin America, Europe, and Asia,” added the president and leader of the Sandinista National Liberation Front party.
Nicaragua sees this new alliance as a great opportunity. China accounts for 75 percent of the world’s energy supply, will surpass more than 60 percent of the world’s Gross Domestic Product, leads in trade, and symbolizes the aspiration for greater economic integration, globalization, and cooperation.
The global economic recovery remains fragile and tortuous, especially because of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the Belt and Road is an alternative for Global Development, co operative effort to achieve the welfare of the people.
“The fraternal Central American country is welcome to take an active part in this Initiative and join the great family of the Belt and Road as soon as possible,” said the Chinese ambassador in Managua, Yu Bo, during the reopening ceremony of China’s embassy in early January.
The country’s projection for the next 20 years is to increase goods’ trade to 10 million tons through its main port, Corinto, in the Pacific Sea. Although it does not have a larger harbor in the Caribbean Sea, the Chinese initiative will offer the necessary resources for its development.
“We don’t have a port to export to Europe. However, thanks to the Belt and Road, we will be able to connect both the Pacific and the Caribbean Sea. This would make it easier for a multitude of cargo movements, mainly Chinese, to cross our country from port to port to move containers with large volumes of goods, which will turn us into an operational logistic destination,” Acosta emphasized.
The Central American country is a major exporter of food products, such as meat and seafood. “Our incorporation into the Belt… will allow us to expand our productive basket, which will have a great long-term impact on our economy,” he asserted.
This initiative, created by Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2013, is not a geo-tool, but a platform that embraces the equal participation of all parties. Nor is it a hegemonic initiative but a complement to existing cooperation mechanisms, a search for synergy.
“China and Nicaragua have forged ahead despite the aggressions it has suffered from those unwilling to accept that this is a world where there cannot be any hegemony. The Belt and Road will continue to unite us under the same purpose: to grow and prevail,” the Latin American leader asserted.
In this major development, that affects not just the two countries but the entire region, the grip of US domination has taken a blow and like a wounded animal you can guarantee that the State Department is scheming of ways to undermine this development that is so needed. The underlying significance is that Nicaragua’s entrance into China’s belt and road initiative is taking place in an atmosphere of co operation and respect between the two countries which is stark in comparison the extreme hostility that Nicaragua has been subjected to by the country to the North.
Source: Resumen Latinoamericano – English