Beijing and Managua agreed to an exchange of three ships per month.
On Thursday, the Nicaraguan government inaugurated a direct trade route with China to expand economic exchange between the two countries, an official media reported.
The announcement was made in the port of Corinto, in the Pacific, about 150 km northwest of Managua, where Panamanian-flagged merchant Sunny Fortune arrived on Wednesday, the first of three ships per month planned in a trade agreement with China.
The presidential adviser in charge of relations between Nicaragua and China, Laureano Ortega, son of President Daniel Ortega and Vice President Rosario Murillo, led the event with Chinese and Nicaraguan officials and said that “it is a momentous fact” for the Central American country.
“This is a great achievement for our country that we will continue to work to make this only the beginning of much, more frequent, more frequent, of more operations,” said Laureano Ortega, quoted on the El19digital portal.
He added that, in addition to opening the route, the Sunny Fortune transported machinery for the construction of Punta Huete International Airport, north of Managua, which the Nicaraguan government concession to the Chinese company CAMC.
In December 2023, China and Nicaragua agreed to raise their relations to the level of “strategic partnership,” following a call between Ortega and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Nicaragua and China launched a Free Trade Agreement in January.
In 2021, Managua established relations with China after breaking with Taiwan, considered by Beijing as its own territory whose control must regain, even by the force of being necessary.
Since then, the world’s second-largest economy has supported the Nicaraguan government, which faces sanctions from the United States and European countries following the 2018 protests against Ortega, which left more than 300 dead, according to the UN.
This article has been translated after first appearing in Diario El Mundo