Dominica’s Foreign Affairs Minister to attend China-Celac forum

Chinese President Xi Jinping meets with Costa Rican President Luis Guillermo Solis, Cuban leader Raul Castro, Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa and Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda Gaston Browne, in Brasilia, Brazil, July 17, 2014.
Chinese President Xi Jinping meets with Costa Rican President Luis Guillermo Solis, Cuban leader Raul Castro, Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa and Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda Gaston Browne, in Brasilia, Brazil, July 17, 2014. Photo credit: www.news.cn

Foreign Affairs Minister, Francine Baron, will be part a three person delegation which will represent Dominica at the 1st ministerial meeting of the China-CELAC forum to be held in Beijing from Jan 8 – Jan 9, 2014.

An official of the Embassy of The People’s Republic of China here told Dominica News Online that the delegation will also include David Xu, Special Envoy in the Dominican Embassy in China and Hubert Charles who is Dominica’s Ambassador to the US as well the country’s Permanent Representative to the OAS and National CELAC Coordinator.

Foreign ministers or representatives from China and CELAC, together with heads of some Latin American regional organizations will attend the meeting, according to a CCTV website.

The website quotes a Chinese government spokesperson,  as saying that the meeting will discuss guiding principles of cooperation, major cooperative areas and institution building issues.

The two sides will use the forum for collective dialogue on politics, economics, trade and culture.

China is willing to engage in dialogue with other Latin American organizations to build a cooperative network enabling the two sides to complement each other with their own advantages, Hua Chunying said.

CELAC was established in December 2011 in Caracas, Venezuela and comprises all countries in North and South America with the exception of the United States and Canada.

China is the second largest trade partner and the third largest investor of Latin American and Caribbean countries, a release from the Chinese Embassy in Dominica states.

In 2013, the bilateral trade volume between China and CELAC countries reached USD $261.57 billion, according to the information from The Embassy.

The release adds that China’s total investment to the region was USD $86 billion. In January-November 2014, trade volume between China and CELAC countries amounted to USD $241.93 billion, an increase by 1.3% as compared with the same period in 2013  and in the first half of the year 2014, investment to the region from China was USD $9.06 billion.

It says further that cooperation has also been fruitful in areas such as energy, natural resources, infrastructure, finance, agriculture, manufacture and high-technology.

According to the Chinese Embassy statement, in January, 2014, the 2nd CELAC Summit adopted the Special Declaration on the Establishment of the China-CELAC Forum, which laid down the important groundwork for initiating the comprehensive cooperation between China and Latin American and the Caribbean countries.

In July, 2014, at a “historical” meeting in Brazil, leaders of China and Latin American and the Caribbean countries jointly announced the establishment of China and Latin American and the Caribbean “partnership of comprehensive cooperation featuring equality, mutual benefit and common development, the official set-up of China-CELAC forum,” the release from the Chinese Embassy states.

The leaders also agreed to convene the First Ministerial Meeting of the China-CELAC Forum.

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16 Comments

  1. January 28, 2015

    What a regal looking group of men!

    It is hard to imagine heads of free democratic states being able to trust China with anything.

    When I think of China I recall a nation that was caught in the vice like grip of a national opium trade.
    I remember how they painfully bound the feet of the little girls to stunt their growth because the old Chinese men thought small feet were sexy. More recent Chinese history has recorded how their rulers bowed to Chairman Mao and sold the nation out to communism, a atheistic philosophy the simple peasants gobbled up. Since then China continues with its human rights violations. The very latest is that the Chinese government is ordaining (communist) bishops in the Roman Catholic Church in defiance of the Vatican and violation of canon law in its effort to control the church.

    Sincerely, Rev. Donald Hill, D.D., International Evangelist.

  2. January 7, 2015

    The Celac Forum on progress in the Republic of China represents an inordinate affair affecting all Caribbean countries. Concurrent with the depreciation of oil, Venezuela owes China untold billions of dollars. In fact, Venezuela, bankrupt and primarily a Cuban colony, is in the process of becoming an Asian colony, managed by the current dictates of China, as well as by the future requirements of India and Russia. The resulting treaties are and will be favorable only to the narco-mafia states in Latin America (CELAC and its Venezuelan leadership), while the worst misery among unsuspecting nationals in those Caribbean and South American states prevails.

    • January 28, 2015

      I am not the only person who sees what is happening with the illicit relationship China is trying to forge with nations of the Caribbean and South America. It may be that people who can be objective – people with no vested interest – would be worth listening to.

      Certain national leaders in the Caribbean and South America see the interest China has in loaning them money and giving them gifts as something they can exploit to their advantage. They think it is an opportunity to move their countries ahead and win votes at the next election. This is done with no thought of what will happen if their nation goes into recession and they default on paying China back.

      If Venezuela falls to China and becomes a communist state China will turn its sights on Dominica. They want a piece of the Caribbean and they know how to take it without firing a shot.

      Sincerely, Rev. Donald Hill. International Evangelist.

  3. ToTame
    January 7, 2015

    In other news, Jesse Jackson’s incredible status on Facebook (most talked about stat of the year) has reached 300 likes.

  4. concerned Dominican
    January 7, 2015

    Minister of Foreign Affairs what a very lucky woman. Hope she contributes something to the Dominican public cause she contrinuted nothing as High Commissioner, That was a Thank you Job.A la la Poor my Country.

  5. Shaka zulu
    January 7, 2015

    First of all I thought Francine Baron was a woman.
    The most important point of all this was left out. China wants to help develop socialism in Latin American and the Caribbean. It seems like we are going in circles. First it was Russia in the 70s with communism, now it is China with a more modern hibrid form. We already have the OAS, we already have the Caribbean basin initiative and all the other organizations. This only serves to spread China ideology and influence especially in US backyard. When will we realize we must stop being chips in the game of world domination. The dealings with Dominican as far as I have seen is unilateral. No cruise, no tourist arrival, no trade deals. Yes we got loans and grants and that’s about it. We will keep receiving because nothing is sustainable.
    Carry on carry on. Those who forget history are destined to repeat.

  6. Not a herd follower
    January 7, 2015

    David Xu, Special Envoy in the Dominican Embassy in China? Why is he still representing Dominica? Is the Prime Minister contemptuous of the people of Dominica? Why are Dominicans tolerating this obnoxious attitude of the Prime Minister? Why is David Xu still engaged in the conduct of Dominica’s foreign policy?

    • Ma Moses
      January 7, 2015

      I think nothing changed, Mr. Skerrit only gave David Xu a different label to fool all of us but meme pwel, meme bete.

    • Peter Potter
      January 7, 2015

      You where all warned about Skerrit but he still got another 5 years. Skerrit does not give a damn about the wishes of the people of Dominica. You all better stop crying now, you all got what you deserve.

  7. Look jokes
    January 7, 2015

    David Xu?? Who is David Xu? We have been in China for years . Some 12-15 and adding some less and we have only heard of the David Xu, never formally met him or he was never introduced as a representative for Dominica in China. I guess his representations only for affairs that concerns Mr. Skerrit.That David Xu has never once reached out to the student body in China to say I am your representative or the government has never even officially informed us. But why should he? What does he know or care about us?If we have any problems we have no representation or so we thought. But all the time there was an official representative. We have never asked for anything much but representation. … Hahahahha labour katway true….

  8. Alan Piment
    January 7, 2015

    Thank you. We suspected as much. Pray:
    – who will be the third person representing us at the Celac-China Forum starting tomorrow if it is not the P.M.?
    – does China support the right to self determination for the people of the Western Sahara as does Celac (but not Dominica)?
    – If Ms. Baron represents us in her capacity as Foreign Minister why is she still listed as our High Commissioner in London?

    • Ba Yo Bwa
      January 7, 2015

      Does America support the right to self-determination for the people of Palestine? The model of democracy that you guys like to boast seek hard to model? What’s your point?

      • Titiwi
        January 8, 2015

        Wood, is the U.S.A. a member of CELAC like we pretend to be?. The U.S.A. is not at this forum, we are. Don’t try to change the subject.

    • Me
      January 7, 2015

      China is a permanent member of the UNSC but does not recognize the Saharawi Republic.
      As far as I know it has never expressed a view on self determination of the Saharawi people but in view of what happened in Tibet I doubt they would support it. Meanwhile as recent as 14 Oct. 2014 Cuba reiterated its support for self determination before the UN Decolonization Committee in New York. It will be interesting to see how this will pan out.

  9. Erasmus B. Black
    January 7, 2015

    “Foreign Minister,,Francine Baron will be part of a three man delegation…” Huh?? To whoever wrote this press release, please note that there is a relationship between language use and our social reality and the time has come where we need to start eliminating language that misrepresents, erases, or excludes, or offends women.

    • PS
      January 9, 2015

      Erasmus, don’t quibble about that. I’m sure mr. Skerrit knows she is a woman.

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