To promote the study and application of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, the Ningxia Foreign Affairs Office has been focusing on serving China’s overall diplomacy and Ningxia’s high-quality development. It keeps upgrading its international friendship city relations, striving to enhance the quality and efficiency of interactions, and expanding and strengthening Ningxia’s “circle of international friends”. Currently, Ningxia has established international friendship city relations with 60 local governments in 42 countries.

On April 20, the Ningxia Foreign Affairs Office and ProMendoza of Argentina held an online ceremony to sign a Memorandum of Understanding between the two regions. The Memorandum was jointly signed by Director-General Bai Yuzhen and President Daniel Ariosto. Fan Huafeng, Deputy Director-General of the Ningxia Foreign Affairs Office, chaired the ceremony. The Memorandum marks a new opportunity for the two sides to strengthen practical exchanges and mutually beneficial cooperation in the wine industry and beyond. Both parties expressed their commitment to promoting cooperation in a wider range of areas, including economy and trade, science and technology, culture and education, so as to achieve win-win results and promote common development and prosperity. The two sides also had an in-depth discussion on bolstering people-to-people exchanges between the two regions.

Mendoza province is a globally-renowned wine producing region, which contributes 70% of Argentina’s overall wine output. Not only does it have a well-established winemaking industry and a deep-rooted wine culture, it also boasts sound infrastructure of technology, equipment, professionals, brands, and marketing systems, making it highly competitive in the industry. In recent years, Ningxia has been actively seeking opportunities to collaborate with Mendoza province in the wine industry. The two sides have developed a deeper understanding of each other through friendly exchanges, mutual visits, large-scale events, cooperation on pandemic response, and active exchanges and collaboration in the grape and wine industry. These efforts have strengthened such relations and laid a solid foundation for the establishment of international friendship city relations. The Ningxia Foreign Affairs Office and ProMendoza will jointly expand the cooperation between the two regions, unlocking greater potential and enriching their collaboration with new programs and plans, so as to elevate their partnership to a higher level across a wider range of activities.