Dec. 2 – Chinese and Portuguese public companies last week signed a Memorandum of Understanding for a joint partnership to build rail and road projects in Portuguese-speaking countries in Africa, with the possibility of doing the same in Brazil. The MOU protocol was signed in Lisbon on Nov. 24, at the headquarters of the Portuguese […]
Dec. 1, 2017 -In his opening remarks to the first session of the China-Latin America-Caribbean Business Summit (China-LAC 2017) in Punta del Este, Uruguayan President Tabare Vasquez set the tone for the day’s discussion when he identified China as “the champion of international trade and a motor of global economic growth.” Speaking before approximately 3,000 […]
Nov. 29, 2017-The approximately 7,500-km transcontinental rail corridor from Port Sudan to Dakar, Senegal, on the Atlantic Ocean, was first proposed by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in 2005. From its eastern terminal in Port Sudan, on the Red Sea, this northernmost transcontinental rail corridor is slated to cross Chad to its capital, NDjamena, […]
Nov. 25 -{Global Construction Review} (GCR) reported on Nov. 24 the signing of an agreement between China Railway Group and Papua New Guinea to build a roadway system that is estimated to cost $4 billion. Apart from the agreement on the roadway system, government of Papua New Guinea has signed on Nov. 20 a series […]
Nov. 27 -Joint cooperation through the global Belt and Road Initiative was the leading topic at the Sixth Summit of the China-Central and Eastern European countries (CEEC), also known as the “16+1 Cooperation,” which opened today in Budapest. The Hungarian and Chinese Prime Ministers, Viktor Orban and Li Kequiang, kicked off this discussion in their […]
At a Beijing forum on China-Latin America Investment Productive Capacity Cooperation, held on Nov. 22, there was enthusiastic endorsement of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) by the many Ibero-American and Caribbean participants, representing Jamaica, Uruguay, Chile, Mexico, Ecuador, Peru and Cuba, Xinhua reported Nov. 22. Officials from two Chinese companies also attended the conference, […]
Nov. 20 -China-Europe freight train traffic broke all records this year, with more than 3,000 cargo trains traveling on 57 lines between cities at either end–surpassing the past six years combine–according to a Nov. 18 Xinhua report. For example, freight on the the Yiwu-Madrid line, only inaugurated in November 2014, rose 54% in the first […]
Nov. 21 – On Nov. 18, Japan’s Foreign Minister Taro Kono praised the Belt and Road Initiative, calling it “very beneficial to the global economy if it is open and available to all,” as reported today on CGTN. China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang responded today, saying that China is “pleased to see” Japan’s enthusiasm […]
On June 12, 2017, Panama announced that it had broken diplomatic relations with Taiwan, and established them with China, formally recognizing the one-China policy. Five months and five days later, on Nov. 17, Presidents Varela and Xi Jinping signed 19 accords between the two countries, including a “Memorandum of Understanding of cooperation in the framework […]
The reverberations from President Trump’s trip to Asia and in particular, to China, continue to shake-up U.S. and world politics, as a growing number of “mainstream” political figures and think tanks are now taking notice, with some even seeming to have been won over by the Spirit of the New Silk Road.. Trump told his […]