BEIJING.—President Xi Jinping stated this Thursday that trade between China and the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean was expected to reach 500 billion USD within a decade, while investments should hit around $250,000 billion, during the inauguration of the first ministerial meeting of the China-CELAC Forum, with delegations from 30 of the 33 member countries.
Xi Jinping also stressed the importance of cooperation among Latin American countries to strengthen development.
The first day of the ministerial meeting of the Forum of China and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), culminated on Thursday with the Beijing Declaration, which set out a range of strategies and agreements reached by the economic bloc for multilateral cooperation over the next ten years.
“The time has come to deepen relations between China and Latin America (...) the ties between China and Latin America are based on the need to create a common China-CELAC destiny, for the consolidation, development and transformation of our peoples,” the Chinese president emphasized.
Venezuela's President, Nicolás Maduro, noted the opportunity, “to find a common path of justice, of humanity, to achieve the principles of peace, cooperation, so that no one seeks control over our natural resources, nor uses finance, or money, to suppress and dominate entire nations.”
In their speeches, the Presidents of Costa Rica, Ecuador, Venezuela and the Prime Minister of the Bahamas, Perry Christie, also saluted the efforts of Cuba at the forefront of CELAC and towards the establishment of this Forum, which was approved at the second summit of the body held in Havana in January 2014.
The Forum was attended by four presidents, one prime minister and 40 ministers, 20 of whom were Foreign Ministers.
