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WINSTON DOOKERAN

ON THE heels of the US-China trade negotiations in Geneva, when both countries rolled back extremely high tariff walls, even on a paused basis, President Xi Jinping in his keynote address at the China-CELAC Forum's opening ceremony earlier this month in Beijing, declared “there are no winners in tariff wars, and bullying or hegemonism only leads to self-isolation.”
At the launch of the China CELAC Forum in 2015, which I attended, then, as TT’s minister of foreign affairs, President Xi outlined a new five-year co-operation plan to, among other things, increase trade between China and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC).
Ten years later, trade increased from US$200 billion to US$500 billion, giving credence to Xi's words in his keynote address in 2025, that the relationship had moved from "a tender sapling into a towering tree…maturing on both sides.”
In his keynote address, entitled "Writing a New Chapter in building a China- LAC Community with a Shared Future,” Xi launched five programmes to shape that shared future:
* A solidarity programme to support each other on issues of their core interest and concerns, underpinned by international law that safeguards the international order with the United Nations at its core.
* A development programme that will resolutely uphold the multilateral trading system and promote an international environment of openness and co-operation, and foster greater synergy between development strategies and a new phase in Belt and Road co-operation.
* A civilisation programme to uphold the vision of equality, mutual learning, dialogue and inclusiveness between civilisations. This vision will champion humanity’s common values of peace, development, fairness, justice, democracy and freedom.
* A peace programme that will co-operate more closely in disaster governance, cybersecurity, counter-terrorism, anti-corruption, narcotics control and combating transnational organised crime to safeguard security and stability.
* A people-to-people connectivity programme of enhanced scholarships, training opportunities for poverty reduction professionals and initiate "small and beautiful" livelihood projects and Chinese language education.
In quoting a Latin American proverb, “the one who has a friend has a treasure,” President Xi affirmed this new chapter in co-operation, which Prof Jorge Heine (former Chilean ambassador to China) said is steeped in free trade and multilateralism, and Prof John Gong described as being anchored in dignity and respect, in their recordings in The Heat, a CGTN America video commentary on their impressions of the forum.
Several commentators, in noting the offer of US$9.2 billion of credit being offered to LAC countries by the president, described it as a "win-win co-operation" pact.
At the forum, the president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, agreed to join the Belt and Road initiative, a global infrastructure development strategy pursued by China, which was seen as a vital move in Colombia’s foreign policy.
Deepening the relationship between China and CELAC is at the centre of the focus of the Beijing Declaration and the Joint Action Plan (2025-2027) which was adopted by the forum in May.
According to Wang Yi, foreign minister of China, “the two sides agreed on over 100 co-operation projects for the next three years, and 20 measures to support the LAC region’s development.
Wang Yi exhorted that “by working together, China and LAC countries can build a super-large market of two billion people, providing new energies for their respective growth and creating fresh opportunities for global prosperity.” This, he said, could usher the development of the forum into its next “golden decade."
The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a key pillar of global co-operation by China, after an ambitious start in 2013, went into a reflective phase, adjusting from the lessons of its efforts. At this China-CELAC Forum of 2025, it was noted that the BRI is about to embark on a third phase of its expansion.
The early emphasis on basic global infrastructural projects will now yield a new phase on focusing on "clean energy" and filling the "digital gaps" in world connectivity. It is envisaged that logistics in infrastructure, telecommunications, AI technology issues and electronic payments systems may engage the resetting of the focus of this initiative.
The LAC region will interface soon with China on two upcoming meetings, the OAS and BRICS summits. The changing order of things will begin to emerge in content and in alignments, and the impacts that these global settings will have on the China-CELAC Forum will add momentum, particularly in the context of the five programmes for the new chapter cited above.
The ambitious metro system in Bogota and the port in Peru were cited as mega projects in global connectivity, both being spearheaded by Chinese initiatives.
The Caribbean region, at times a bystander in these issues, will see a new urgency to adjust to a concerted review of its foreign policy perspectives that will project its core interest in a changing world.
In this review, there are several key questions that may guide a wider analysis:
* How could small states effectively compete for influence in this non-polar world?
* What forms of leverage are available to small states in trade diplomacy?
* Must traditional trade agreements can be reimagined in today’s world?
* How can the institutional capacity for global negotiation be strengthened?
* What are the new developing finance models for small countries in today’s world finance?
In shaping its own future, a discourse on these questions may provide the basis for a fresh dialogue between the Caribbean and the China-CELAC Forum. In the world of multi-alignment, the Caribbean case must be specified so that its core interest will synchronise with the development aspects of the declaration of the forum.
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