Backgrounder: Top Chinese legislator's visit to boost Uruguay-China relations

China's top legislator Wu Bangguo will arrive in Montevideo on Sunday for a three-day official visit to strengthen strategic relations between China and Uruguay.

Wang Xiaoyuan, China's ambassador to Uruguay, told Xinhua he was certain that the visit by Wu, chairman of the Standing Committee of China's National People's Congress (NPC) "will energetically promote the greater development of Uruguay-China relations," which the ambassador described as already friendly.

Upon his arrival, Wu will meet Uruguayan President Tabare Vazquez, Rodolfo Nin Novoa, the president of Congress and Julio Cardozo Ferreira, president of the Chamber of Deputies.

According to the Uruguayan press, President Vazquez and Wu will discuss the possibility of reaching a bilateral free trade agreement which has been announced by Uruguay's Economy Minister Anilo Astori.

Wu will also take part in a signing ceremony for several bilateral agreements, Ambassador Wang said.

China-Uruguay contacts dated back to the 1950s, but were severed following Uruguay's 1973 military coup. Civil government was restored in March 1985, when Julio Maria Sanguinetti, leader of the Colorado Party, came into power. Their diplomatic relations were resumed on Feb. 3, 1988.

Since then, the two countries have maintained high-level contacts by exchanging visits by leaders from both sides. and worked together in many fields. China currently is Uruguay's fourth largest trading partner, following Brazil, Argentina and the United States.

According to the Chinese Foreign Ministry, the two countries have signed more than 20 agreements covering political, economics and cultural fields.

Meanwhile, China and Uruguay have supported one another on key political issues. Uruguay supports the one-China policy and China's bid to become an observer of the Organization of American States and the Latin American Parliament.

Trade between the two countries has been increasing rapidly. In 2005, their bilateral trade volume totaled 455.9 million U.S. dollars, up 42.5 percent from 2004. Uruguay sold 282.57 million U.S. dollars of goods to China in 2005, up 34.8 percent, and invested 173.33 million U.S. dollars in China, up 57.1 percent from 2004.

In the first six months of 2006, the trade volume between the two countries exceeded 271 million dollars, up 46.33 percent over the same period a year earlier. China bought 96.24 million U.S. dollars of goods from Uruguay, up 44.77 percent from the same period last year, while Uruguay bought 174.77 million U.S. dollars of goods from China, up 44.2 percent over the same period in 2005.

At the end of 2004, China set up three joint ventures in Uruguay, which have a total investment of nearly 1.85 billion U.S. dollars.

In the military domain, the two countries also exchanged visits by senior military officials.

Source: Xinhua