Xi Asks CELAC To Work With China To Overcome Difficulties

On Friday, China’s President Xi Jinping asked the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) to increase its cooperation modalities with China in order to overcome together the difficulties and challenges that contemporary globalization generates.

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“China welcomes Latin American and Caribbean countries to actively participate in the Global Development Initiative and work together with China to overcome difficulties, create opportunities and push forward a global community of development with shared future,” he said when addressing the third Ministerial Meeting of the Forum of China and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States via video link.

“Stressing that peaceful development, fairness and justice, and win-win cooperation is the correct path, Xi said that China and CELAC countries are comprehensive cooperative partners following the principle of equality, mutual benefit, and common development,” Chinese outlet CGTN reported.

During the 1st CELAC-China meeting in 2015, Xi announced that his country would increase its investments in LATAM up to US$250 billion and double bilateral trade to US$500 billion before 2025.

Later, at the second CELAC-China meeting that took place in Chile in 2018, the Latin American countries signed the "Declaration of Santiago" committing themselves to innovate the modalities of cooperation with China to achieve sustainable growth and social welfare.

Back then, Xi promoted the New Silk Road, an ambitious project that seeks to improve China's connection with its main partners on various continents. Despite the fact that the United States is putting pressure on developing countries not to join this proposal, the relations of Latin American nations with China continue to flourish.

In the first three quarters of 2021, China-LATAM trade reached US$331 billion, which represented an increase of 45.5 percent compared to the same period last year. Regarding these achievements, Xi recalled that his nation and the CELAC countries "lent each other a hand" during the pandemic, which allowed trading partners to overcome the economic contraction and resume the path of growth.