00:00Ignacio Bartoszaki is the director of the International Business Institute at Uruguay's Catholic University.
00:30And also we signed different agreements where we want to expand our relations with China, not only in trade, but also in other issues, in other topics that are important to deepen our relations.
00:43So we are happy of the visit.
00:45Of course, this visit must work.
00:48We must work in the implementation of these agreements.
00:51But anyway, we are very happy because China is our main partner.
00:56It's a strategic partner for Uruguay.
00:58And it's important to deepen our relations.
01:00So already an important trading relationship between the two countries.
01:04How would you describe the current economic relationship between the two?
01:09That's an important point because I think that we need to catch more investments from China and Uruguay.
01:17That is the next step.
01:18I think so.
01:19We need to expand our agenda also, not only trade, because we export a few products to China.
01:25It's very important for our economy.
01:27But we need to export more products.
01:29So more companies exporting more products, more goods in China.
01:33But also we need to expand the relations in catching more investments and also in services.
01:39So this is, I think, the important next step in our relations because at the moment, the main relation is explained by our trade.
01:51Of course, China exports to Uruguay a lot of technology, and we need technology, and that is important.
01:58Also for renewable energies, products are really important from China that are sold from China and Uruguay.
02:06So I think that it's necessary to expand our relations more over the trade in goods.
02:14Given the broader geopolitical climate, what do you make of the timing of this visit?
02:22The timing is more important for China than for Uruguay.
02:26For Uruguay, it's a bit more complicated because we know that the U.S. is watching with a lot of attention all the steps that Latin American countries are having with China.
02:37And, of course, in this moment, it's going to be complicated for Uruguay because the bilateral declaration is, there has some contents that are regular contents of the declarations that China asks to Latin American countries.
02:54But we have to be clear that the international context is changing and that the pressure of U.S. is increasing, also in Uruguay.
03:03But we are a small country. We need to have good relations with China, and we want to have also good relations with the U.S.
03:10We don't want to choose. We want to have some relations with China in some topics, with the U.S. in other topics.
03:17So our idea is not to choose. So we want to visit China, then we can visit the U.S.
03:22We want to visit India. We want to visit Indonesia. For small countries, we need to be really open.
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