FROM EIR DAILY ALERT

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Belt and Road, Maritime Silk Road Hold the Key to Chile’s, Ibero-America’s Development

March 1, 2018 (EIRNS)—In an interview published today in The Banker, outgoing Chilean Foreign Minister Heraldo Munoz emphasized that China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and its 21st Century Maritime Silk Road component

“create opportunities amid challenges and changes, enhancing connectivity not only within Asia, and Asia and Europe, but between Asia and Latin America, adapting it to our current circumstances.”

Munoz and the Chilean government hosted the Jan. 22 conference of the China-CELAC Forum in Santiago, at which China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi invited all member nations of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) to join the BRI. Munoz told The Banker that through the BRI, Chile

“could become a platform to connect with the rest of Latin America.... Today Chile is more than prepared to participate in and join the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road; hence, looking toward aligning with One Belt, One Road goals, Chile is undergoing important processes with regards to connectivity, both domestically and within Latin America.”

He underscored that Chinese companies are very interested in the public tenders that Chile has put forward to increase connectivity through construction of tunnels and roads (bioceanic corridors) with Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay and Brazil. Moreover, he said, Chile’s membership in the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank will soon be finalized, which will allow AIIB

“to finance projects that benefit integration with Asia, such as construction of airports, ports, highways, tunnels, fiber-optic cables (under the Pacific to connect with China) and other forms of cooperation.” Munoz concluded that the BRI offers “an opportunity to Latin American countries to be part of a process of global interconnection and cooperation.”