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China, the EU and Latin America : current issues and future cooperation
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42 China theEUandLatinAmerica:CurrentIssuesandFutureCooperation PresidentLuladuringtheG20LondonSummitinApril2009.Besidesthesebig countries Chinaalsovaluesitsrelationswithsmallerones suchasCostaRica inalongtermperspective. Intheeconomicarena bilateralcooperationhasbeenwinwin.Chinahas emergedasthesecondbiggesttrading partnerof Latin Americaandthe Caribbean.Inhis2004visittoLatinAmerica PresidentHuJintaocommitted ChinatoattainingUSD100billioninbilateraltradevolumeby2010:however thefigurewassurpassedasearlyas2007 whichshowsthegreatpotentialof bilateraltrade Zhou Wenzhong2009 .ChinasurpassedtheUSAasBrazils largesttradepartnerin2009 Xinhuanet2009 .TheBilateralFree Trade Agreement FTA with Chileisworking well andsimilarFTA negotiations withCostaRicaandPeruaresettobeconcluded.Chinaisthemostfrequent userofthePanamaCanalaftertheUSAandJapan.Chinasdirectinvestmentin LatinAmericatotalled USD24.8billionin2008 Moxley2010 .Chinas investmentintheexplorationofBrazilsnewfounddeepseaoilfieldisamore recentexample of winwin cooperation.Financialcooperation hasalso gained momentuminrecentyears.Againstthebackgroundofthecurrentinternational financialcrisis ChinasboomingeconomicrelationshipwithLatinAmericasendsouta hopefulmessagetothecurrentlyunbalancedandvulnerableworldeconomy. Intheculturalarena bothsidesvaluethedevelopmentofpeopletopeople links.Bilateraltourism andculturalexchangehavebeenpromotedbythe Chinesegovernmentaspartofpublicdiplomacy.Chinahasdesignatedmorethan 16countriesintheregionasapproveddestinationsforChinesecitizenstotravel astourists.ConfuciusInstitutesandlanguageandculturalinstituteshavebeen establishedatselecteduniversitiesacrosstheregion.Learning Mandarinis becomingincreasinglypopularinLatin America notleastforthebusiness opportunitiesitbringswithit Forero2006 .Networksofinformalsummitsand meetings eitherinChinaorinLatinAmerica havebeenestablishedtobring opinionformerstogether Kurlantzick2006 .Chinasdevelopmentexperiences andvisionsofpeacefuldevelopmentandaharmoniousworldhaveaverystrong culturaland historicalbackground.Butto understandthem properly an adequateknowledgeofChinesecultureisrequired.Suchpersonallinkages includingbilateralexchangesbetweenacademiaandthinktanks areplayinga positiveroleindeepeningmutualunderstanding. 2.2 InstitutionalisingRegionalInvolvement Withdeepeningandbroadeningcooperation increasingimportanceisbeing giventoregionalinstitutions.Institutionaliseddialoguethroughvariouschannels