President Alberto Fernández arrived in China this Thursday night, where he will meet with the president of that country, Xi Jinping, and will participate in the inauguration of the winter olympics.
Fernández arrived at 9:07 p.m. (Argentina time) in Beijing from Moscow on Aerolineas Argentinas flight AR1090 to complete the second leg of the international tour that began Tuesday night.
The first point of the tour was Russia, where he met with President Vladimir Putin to strengthen bilateral relations.
President Alberto Fernández has an intense agenda scheduled for Friday in China, as part of the official tour that began in Russia, continues in that country and will conclude in Barbados, it was officially reported.
At the airport in the Chinese capital Fernández was received by Wu Jie, ambassador of the Department of Protocol of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, and by the Argentine ambassador Sabino Vaca Narvaja.
Schedule
On Friday at 4 in Argentina, Fernández will participate virtually in the ceremony in which he will be awarded the title of Professor Honoris Causa of Tsinghua University.
At 7:30 he will visit the Museum of the Chinese Communist Party, where he will place a floral offering, take a guided tour and sign the book of distinguished visitors, the Casa Rosada reported tonight.
At 9 o’clock, together with Vaca Narvaja, he will witness the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics at the Beijing National Stadium.
At 10:30 p.m., Fernández will visit the Palace Museum, located in the so-called Forbidden City, a complex of almost a thousand buildings built at the beginning of the 15th century and which until the beginning of the 20th century was the political center of China and the residence of the emperors.
Later, according to the agenda, just 1,500 meters from there, in Tiananmen Square, Fernández will place a floral offering at Mao Zedong’s mausoleum.
At 1:15 am on Saturday in Argentina, the President will be received in the Great Hall of the People, where a lunch will be offered in honor of the heads of state who attend the opening of the Olympic Games.
Meanwhile, at 8:15 a.m. he will meet with the Argentine Olympic delegation in the town of Zhangjakou and at 9:00 p.m. he will have a virtual meeting with the representatives of the diplomatic missions of Latin America and the Caribbean.
The meeting between Fernández and Xi will take place on Sunday, at 0:40 a.m. in Argentina (11:40 a.m. in China), in the Great Hall of the People.
The official activity in the Asian country will end that same day with visits to the Huawei Technology Center and the Great Wall of Mutianyu -just over 70 kilometers from Beijing-, before taking a flight that will take the head of state and his entourage to Bridgetown, Barbados, in the Lesser Antilles, in the Caribbean Sea.
The tour will conclude on Tuesday, February 8 in Barbadoswhere Fernández will meet with the local prime minister and with representatives of the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS).
Fernández travels accompanied by Foreign Minister Santiago Cafiero, the Governor of Río Negro, Arabela Carreras; the governors of Buenos Aires, Axel Kicillof, and of Catamarca, Raúl Jalil; the spokeswoman for the Presidency, Gabriela Cerruti; the Secretary of Sports, Inés Arrondo; senator Adolfo Rodríguez Saá, deputy Eduardo Valdés, presidential adviser Cecilia Nicolini, and the mayor of José C. Paz, Mario Ishii.
The early support of Argentina to the Chinese organization of the Winter Olympics earned Fernández a special invitation to participate in the opening ceremony that was attended by President Xi Jinping himself.
[???? ???? ???????] ??
Meet all the Spanish-speaking athletes who will participate in the #Olympic Games of winter #Beijing2022.
?????????????????? pic.twitter.com/01SjaS43NX
– The Olympic Games (@juegosolimpicos) February 3, 2022
China is the first commercial partner outside Mercosur, the second destination for Argentine agro-industrial exports and the first investor in renewable energies.
Among the many points of contact and investment of the Asian country in Argentina, the construction of the Atucha III nuclear power plant was announced last Tuesday, which will have an investment of more than 8,300 million dollars.
The Asian giant is also a very important partner in commercial matters: It is the second destination of exports, participating in 8% of the total, and the main origin of imports, representing 21% of the total.
Bilateral ties also include the presence of some 200,000 Chinese currently living in the country, making up the fifth largest immigrant community behind Bolivians, Paraguayans, Peruvians and Chileans.
