Lima, January 27, 2005

This past December I had the opportunity to visit Beijing and had a long and friendly conversation with Vice-President Zeng Qinghong. In addition to discussing the emerging economic, trade, diplomatic and political relations between Peru and the People’s Republic of China, we also talked at length about the Chinese Government’s decision to attribute more priority to its relations with Latin America and, within that region, with the Andean Community.

It was at that time that we shared with the Vice-President the idea of convening the Andean Community Council of Foreign Ministers to receive him, exchange ideas, and lay down the course that should lead to more intense, more fruitful, more productive and more friendly relations between the Andean Community and the People’s Republic of China.

I am not going to repeat the figures that Ambassador Allan Wagner Tizón has so eloquently presented. I only wish to point out that China’s exports in 2004 amounted to 529 billion dollars, while Latin America’s total exports reached 460 billion. A comparison of the two figures reveals the excellent potential offered by the economic relations between Latin America, the South American Community of Nations and the Andean Community with your country, Mr. Vice-President.

I am firmly convinced that the agreements on cooperation and political dialogue that have been signed by the Andean Community and the People’s Republic of China and the various mechanisms and instruments through which your bilateral relations with each of our countries are conducted are the most appropriate instruments for making “a great leap forward” --to borrow a phrase from the period when China was struggling for emancipation-- that would place the Andean Community in the position of integral partner with the People’s Republic of China in a growing relationship.

Our societies, our States and our economies, irrespective of the differences in magnitude, have many elements in common, some of which I would like to draw attention to. In the first place, the initial expressions of the advanced civilizations of which the Andean nations and the Chinese people can justly boast as having generated cultural values and civilizations that have enriched the development of man, in terms of progress, appeared 5 000 years ago in both Andean and Chinese territory.

We are societies, nations, and States possessing a history that is not only a past, but also a force of the present and the future. Nations with a history are nations that have a conscience and nations with a conscience are those that know how to confront challenges of all kinds. And this, your nation has demonstrated, Mr. Vice-President.

The Andean nations and China are developing countries, irrespective of the differences in degree of development attained; and we are countries that must resolve common problems, if in different orders of magnitude.

The People’s Republic of China has grown at rates topping 9% over the past two decades and forecasts for this year are in a similar range. There are even parts of your country, like the province of Shanghai, whose growth over the next five years is expected to reach a double-digit level. Despite this extraordinary development, however, Chinese leaders and President Hu Jintao have not lost sight of its history or the size of its problem. That economic growth with a striving for social cohesion that the world so admires is, for the Chinese leaders, a stage of austere well-being. This is important, because China and the Andean Community also share social imbalances, imbalances in their growth and development processes. That is why it is important for us to exchange experiences in seeking to reduce those imbalances and offer greater well-being that will be shared by the large masses.

China and the Andean Communities share perceptions of the international system and the evolution of world events. We have very strong areas of agreement: the need for international trade to be equitable, non-discriminatory and based on multilateral WTO rules under effective criteria of mutual benefit and of special and differentiated treatment for the developing countries. Both of our countries, both political structures, consider that the United Nations system should not only be preserved, but also reinforced. As a result, we do not want to see reforms that will weaken the United Nations, but that will make it more efficient. And here we are referring to reforms that are not sectorally-based, but comprehensive, that will lead to changes that will not only make the Security Council more democratic and efficient, but will also alter and reorganize the United Nations’ entire economic and social system.

We also have shared perceptions about peace and international security. Our positions are very similar with regard to the problems of the Korean Peninsula, to the solutions we demand for the Middle East problem, and for more recent crises, like those of Iraq and Afghanistan. The fact is, Mr. Vice-President, that we are countries that essentially want stability, domestic social stability, which means having socially inclusive and non-inclusive development options, stability of our legal provisions and investment regimes, stability of our administration of justice, so that the development of the private sector and of domestic and foreign investments can be promoted, and stability of regional and world international relations so that peace can be achieved on the basis of multilateralism and respect for international law.

I would like, Mr. Vice-President, on behalf of the Andean Council of Foreign Ministers, to conclude by referring to four lines of work that could chart the immediate future course of relations between the Andean Community and the People’s Republic of China.

First, starting with your presence today, we must intensify the meetings with and visits of leaders and visits of high-level State and government representatives, for therein lies the dialogue and the essential source of the cooperation. Second, I believe we should further develop our agreement on cooperation and political dialogue in order to hold annual meetings in the course of the United Nations General Assembly and to exchange information and, when possible, coordinate positions on the major issues and points on the world agenda. Third, we should move toward a wide-based economic, scientific and technological complementarity and cooperation agreement between the Andean Community and the People’s Republic of China. And fourth, Mr. Vice-President, I consider that we should work arduously, using this “umbrella” of Community areas of impetus, to lead the relations between the People’s Republic of China and each of the Andean countries toward levels of greater mutual benefit.

In the course of your visit, Peru, which accounts for 71% of the Andean Community’s exports to China, and China have decided, through the mutual political will of our governments, to raise Peruvian-Chinese relations to the level of an integral cooperation association. It is my hope, Mr. Vice-President, that specific agreements and developments in the sphere of commercial relations in regard to investment, science and technology, together with political dialogue, will result in the short term in the materialization, for all the Andean countries, of that associative relationship, that relationship of integral cooperation with the People’s Republic of China. That would be the best sign, the best proof that we are striving together to obtain the well-being of our nations and to strengthen the relations between our countries.

The CAN Secretary General has already referred to some of the principles that orient the relations between the People’s Republic of China and the Andean region, the principle of recognition of a single China, the principle of the territorial integrity of the People’s Republic of China. Just as we are following with the greatest of interest the discussion and approval of the Antisecession Law in the Legislative Assembly of the People’s Republic of China, we consider that our relations should continue to be guided by the principles of mutual and reciprocal benefit. President Deng Tsiao Ping set China’s modernization in motion by combining the traditional and the modern guided by a pragmatic vision in which the people’s well-being is the central aim. We share these visions, we have the same paths to follow, let us do so together.

Thank-you very much.