Peruvian Foreign Minister Javier Gonzalez-Oleachea met in Beijing with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, on Monday, April 29, to discuss ways to strengthen their nations’ bilateral and international collaboration. Peru will host the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit in Nov. 10-16, and hopes President Xi Jinping will attend in person, although no formal announcement has yet been made.
Altogether, over the course of April 28-30, Wang Yi met separately with three South American Foreign Ministers: those of Bolivia, Peru and Argentina. Both the Peruvian and Argentine Foreign Ministers also met with Vice President Han Zheng. So much for the “successes” of the U.S. Southern Command’s thuggish demands that the region distance themselves from China.
As was seen in the meeting between the Bolivian and Chinese ministers, Peru and China reject the British-Kissinger maxim that countries never have friends, but only “interests.” Wang and Gonzalez-Oleachea both spoke of deepening the long-term friendship between the two countries. Wang told his Peruvian colleague that “China is willing to strengthen development-strategy synergy with Peru, complete negotiations on upgrading the China-Peru free trade agreement (FTA) as soon as possible, expand practical cooperation in various fields, and aid Peru’s industrialization process,” Xinhua reported.
