CHINA-INTER-AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK (IDB): CHINA CALLS OFF IDB GENERAL ASSEMBLY MEETING

The Inter-American Development Bank is calling off its general assembly next week in China amid a dispute over the participation of a Venezuelan representative opposed by Beijing. The IDB did not say in its press release the reason for canceling the meeting, planned for March 28-31 in Chengdu. US Vice President Mike Pence, however, wrote in The Miami Herald (March 22) that China refused to grant an official visa to Ricardo Hausmann, the Venezuelan representative designated by opposition leader Juan Guaido.

The IDB last week became the first international financial organization to recognize Guaido as the legitimate president of the South American country, a stand taken by the U.S. and about 50 other nations that contend Nicolas Maduro's re-election last year was rigged. China, which is seeking to make further economic and diplomatic inroads into what has traditionally been regarded as the United States' backyard, disagrees and remains as one of the main allies of Maduro. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said (Beijing - March 22) that the bank's annual meeting should "focus on financial cooperation and avoid introducing sensitive political topics so as to avoid politicization." The issue of Venezuela's representation "should be properly resolved on the basis of flexibility and pragmatism," Geng told reporters at a daily briefing. "If the countries concerned deliberately undermine and derail the preparatory process of the annual meeting, then they should bear the consequences."






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