Chile is set to hold a crunch presidential showdown next month which will pit leftist candidate Jeannette Jara against Republican contender Jose Antonio Kas, after neither secured more than 50 percent of the vote in Sunday's general election.
Preliminary results from Chile's Electoral Service (Servel) on Sunday evening showed that with over 77 percent of ballots counted, Jara led the way with 26.69 percent of the vote, followed closely by Kast on 24.15 percent.
Under Chilean law, the two frontrunners will now go into a run-off since no candidate obtained over half of the votes in the first round of the election, with Dec. 14 now being set as the crucial date for the second round.
In a televised speech, current Chilean President Gabriel Boric congratulated Jara and Kast and said he's confident that dialog, respect and affection for Chile will come first over any differences between the two leading candidates who are vying to secure a four-year term.
In the capital Santiago, Chilean residents who were casting their ballots in Sunday's first round shared their views on the most pressing issues a new president must face.
"Security is the biggest issue. We are in a bad moment here in the sense that we were seeing a lot of thefts. Yesterday, they even stole my mobile phone in the street," said a voter.
"The most important reason for me to come and vote today is to safeguard women's rights and social rights, which we have fought to protect across different governments," said another.
Chile to hold presidential runoff election
China's Commerce Minister Wang Wentao met with visiting German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul in Beijing on Monday, and called on German companies to seize opportunities and deepen cooperation with Chinese partners in traditional and emerging sectors.
Wang noted that economic and trade cooperation between China and Germany has helped both sides develop industrial integration, interconnected markets, and complementary technologies, stabilizing and deepening bilateral relations, while also promoting the healthy development of China's trade and economic relations with the European Union (EU).
"We welcome German companies to seize new opportunities, consolidate cooperation in traditional sectors including machinery, automobiles, and chemicals, and tap the potential for cooperation in emerging businesses such as clean energy, intelligent manufacturing and biopharmaceuticals," said Wang.
Wang also noted that the current trend of politicizing trade and economic issue is on the rise, and global industrial and supply chains are being severely disrupted as a result. China and Germany, as well as China and the EU, should uphold free trade and safeguard the multilateral trading system with the WTO at its core, Wang said.
Wadephul said Germany opposes protectionism and considers China its most important trading partner. He added that Germany wants to maintain and expand the positive momentum of cooperation.
"China is a driver of innovation and a major hub for high technology in many aspects. We are very keen to maintain exchanges with China both economically and scientifically," said Wadephul.
China and Germany are the world's second and third biggest economies. According to German data, China was once again Germany's largest trading partner in the first three quarters of this year.
China’s commerce minister meets with German FM, calling for deepening cooperation
