Safe and sound

Working together, China and Latin America can help shape a new global common security framework

Both China and Latin America are developing economies that desire a peaceful and stable international environment to facilitate growth. In the current international order dominated by the West, both China and Latin America face numerous security risks and threats caused by the global hegemony of Western powers, the failure of the global security governance system, and security disorder.

Over the past two decades, Latin America and China have become important partners to each other. According to the latest report of the International Trade Outlook for Latin America and the Caribbean 2023, released by the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean in early November, trade between China and Latin America has grown from a little more than $14 billion in 2000 to nearly $500 billion in 2022, increasing about 35 times in value. China is the region's second-largest trading partner, as well as the top trading partner for many Latin American countries. Five countries in the region have signed free trade agreements with China, nearly one-fourth of China's total.

In order to maintain their global hegemony, Western countries such as the United States have been inciting bloc confrontation, which has led to the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine and the Israel-Palestine conflicts, triggering serious energy, food, and humanitarian crises, while severely impacting international arms control.

At the same time, non-traditional security risks such as climate change and environmental crises are exerting increasingly negative impacts on the global economy and social life, while Western countries continue to deepen or create problems through militarization and securitization, seeking to bring geopolitical competition into the global governance of nontraditional security issues, so as to gain or maintain their dominance in this realm.

All of these issues are set to further harm the development rights of developing countries. China and Latin America need to work together more closely to respond to the security challenges.

Currently, China-Latin America relations have ushered in a new stage to build a community of shared future. With highly aligned concepts and positions on global security governance, the two sides can further strengthen cooperation through the following pathways.

First, bilateral communication and coordination need to be enhanced to improve security governance capabilities.

While global governance in climate change and environmental crises has not yet made remarkable progress, new issues such as digital governance and artificial intelligence keep emerging. By working together on specific economic, technological, and infrastructure projects, China and Latin America can enhance their security governance capabilities in areas closely related to national development and people's well-being, such as food security, environmental protection, public health and cyberspace. This will meet the security needs of relevant countries and enable them to share the benefits from economic and technological advancement.

For example, the China-Brazil Earth Resources Satellite has played a crucial role in monitoring environmental protection in the Amazon rainforest. Guardian, an acoustic monitoring system developed by Huawei and partners, helps protect biodiversity in forests in Chile and Costa Rica.

Second, support should be given to Latin America to explore collective security governance mechanisms in the region.

Currently, the US and Europe are Latin America's main security partners, and the US-led inter-American security system sits at the core of the security governance framework in the region. But the model was designed to safeguard Western interests and does not fully align with the demands of Latin American countries.

Therefore, Latin America has been exploring regional security governance mechanisms to enhance security autonomy, such as establishing the South American Defense Council, strengthening the integration of the defense industry in the region, and promoting the diversification of international security cooperation.

On top of the established mechanisms such as the China-Latin America High-level Defense Forum and the China-CELAS Ministerial Forum on Disaster Management Cooperation, the two sides may launch a platform for non-traditional security governance cooperation, so as to enhance exchanges and coordination, and provide support for security governance in the region.

Third, essential security initiatives representing the Global South positions should be advanced.

The first priority is to rally support from developing countries to uphold world peace. Global peace and stability are at risk with the prolonging Russia-Ukraine conflict and the escalating Israel-Palestine conflict. With a relatively aligned stance on both issues, China and Latin America have put forward solutions and actively engaged in mediation. To untangle the geopolitical deadlocks, China and Latin America should further strengthen coordination and unite a broader coalition of developing countries to propose solutions, expedite political resolutions, and enhance the influence of the Global South in security governance.

Another focus is to participate in the formulation of new security rules. Western countries, particularly the US and its allies, are seeking to not only maintain dominance in existing security governance domains, but also increase their influence in emerging nontraditional security areas. In response, China and Latin America need to promote cooperation and enhance coordination in areas such as establishing cyberspace norms and rules, so as to ensure representation of the Global South's ideas on common security.

Last but not least, it is crucial to strengthen security cooperation within the framework of the United Nations. Both China and Latin America are firmly committed to upholding the authority of the United Nations as the primary global security governance platform. In the future, the two sides should enhance cooperation within the UN framework in climate negotiations, arms control and disarmament, marine environmental protection, and sustainable use of natural resources. These collaborative efforts can help change the traditional global governance model dominated by Western powers, and promote the development of the global security governance architecture in a fair and just direction that is conducive to developing countries.

The author is assistant research fellow at the Institute of Latin American Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. The author contributed this article to China Watch, a think tank powered by China Daily.

Contact the editor at editor@chinawatch.cn