Paris (EFE).- The president of Chile, Gabriel Boric, judged that it is not good to depend on a single country, alluding to China, and, therefore, he sees the European Union (EU) as a “key partner” to diversify the economy from the influence of Beijing, the main trading partner of the South American country.
“China is an opportunity as long as we are not dependent. It is the main partner of almost all of Latin America. We are interested in diversifying our economy and not depending on a single country,” the Chilean leader said in an interview published today in the French newspaper Le Monde.
He opined that Beijing “does not seek” to buy Chile “nor to exercise absolute hegemony.” “They progress to the extent that they see space to do so,” added Boric, who has just finished a European tour that took him to Madrid, Brussels (he participated in the EU-Celac summit), Geneva and Paris.
Chile’s commitment to Europe
In this sense, the Chilean president ordered the EU to occupy part of that space. “I think Europe is a key partner, precisely because of the values we share,” he added, alluding, for example, to the firm condemnation of Russia for the war in Ukraine and the denunciation of human rights violations in countries like Nicaragua.
The government delegation headed by Boric took advantage of the visit to Brussels to sign an agreement with the EU on the supply of lithium (Chile has huge reserves of this mineral used for electric batteries).
“We have not come to Europe just to sell stones. Chile is lucky to have reserves of certain minerals or certain important energies for today’s world: wind, sun, lithium. But we have knowledge, technology, professionals, and we want to value this chain,” said the president.
A feeling that he shared with businessmen
Boric already met on Thursday in Paris with French businessmen with the goal of diversifying business partners so as not to depend so much on China.
Before the businessmen, Boric expressed interest in depending less on China, although he highlighted the “good relationship” he has with the Asian country.
“We know that in the current geopolitical context it is necessary to diversify our sources of income and the destinations of our products,” he acknowledged.
The president showed his “pride” for having managed to finish “the modernization” of the association agreement between Chile and the European Union, which had originally entered into force in 2003 and could be signed by the end of this year.
“It is really important, particularly if we see how difficult it has been with other brother countries,” Boric said, referring to the more than twenty years of negotiations for an agreement between the EU and Mercosur, which also has not been possible since 2019.