Argentina seeks BRICS entry with China and Brazil meetings

Ambassador Sabino Vaca Narvaja held meetings with BRICS Bank President Dilma Rousseff and Foreign Minister Qin Gang in Shanghai

In a bid to accelerate Argentina’s entry into the New BRICS Bank (NBD), Argentine Ambassador to China Sabino Vaca Narvaja met on Friday with its current director, former Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff, as well as the new Chinese Foreign Minister, Qin Gang.

The acronym BRICS refers to the economic alliance between five countries considered to be rising powers: Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. 

At the “Chinese Modernization and the World” forum in Shanghai, attended by international businessmen and professors, Vaca Narvaja stressed the importance of the NBD. 

“As [Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva] said during his recent visit to China, why can’t we trade backed by our currency? I think institutions like the NDB help us to think differently and meeting with Dilma was a great help in that sense.”

Brazil and China have strengthened their ties following Lula’s visit to President Xi Jinping’s office with the aim of boosting bilateral trade between their countries.

As leader of the NDB, Rousseff has outlined her hopes for the Brazil-China alliance, focusing on environmental protection, development and economic inclusion.

During Vaca Narvaja and Rousseff’s encounter, the Argentine ambassador gave the former Brazilian president a Chinese-language edition of El Eternauta, the classic Argentine comic book created by scriptwriter Héctor Oesterheld and cartoonist Francisco Solano López. 

The book will soon be presented at the Beijing Book Fair, one of the most important and massively attended events in the world for the publishing market.

During his stay in Shanghai, Vaca Narvaja also met with the president of Tibet Summit, Jian Rong Huang, owner of a company that invested U$S 2,200 million in two lithium projects in the province of Salta.

Over the past few years, BRICS members have supported Argentina’s entry to the alliance, including explicit backing from the Chinese government

Originally published in Ambito.com, translated by the Buenos Aires Herald

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