Argentinian President Alberto Fernández met for 40 minutes with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Beijing on Sunday, in what appears to be a major foreign policy shift for Latin America’s fourth-largest economy.
First, and most importantly, Argentina signed on to become the 145th member of China’s Belt and Road Initiative. The President himself giddily announced on Twitter that “our country will obtain more than $23 billion of Chinese investment” now that it’s part of the BRI. While that sounds encouraging, the President may not be fully aware that the lofty promises of massive Chinese investment to new BRI signatory countries often do not materialize.