Chile's President-elect To Prioritise Ties With Asia-Pacific
Chile's President-elect To Prioritise Ties With Asia-Pacific
SANTIAGO, Dec. 17 (BERNAMA-NNN-XINHUA) -- Promoting stronger and more flexible ties with the Asian Pacific region will be a foreign policy priority for the government of Chile's president-elect Michelle Bachelet.
Bachelet, the victorious centre-left candidate to assume the presidency for the second time on March 11, 2014, was elected Sunday with 62 per cent of votes and defeating conservative ruling-party candidate Evelyn Matthei.
According to Bachelet's government programme, "the importance of the (Asia-Pacific) region is reinforced by the strategic contribution it could provide to our country's projection in Latin America and the Caribbean in general, and with South America in particular."
"The axis of 21st-century foreign policy is in the Pacific," the platform points out.
During her first presidential term (2006-2010), Bachelet strengthened ties with China, a country she visited more than once and had met China's then President Hu Jintao several times. The 2006 China-Chile Free Trade Agreement (FTA) also came into force during her presidency.
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