Xinhua News Agency, Mexico City, May 12th Title　: China and Latin America work together to draw a better decade

  Xinhua News Agency reporter Zhao Kaimeng Yifei

  The fourth ministerial meeting of the China-Latin America and the Caribbean Countries Forum will be held in Beijing on the 13th. In July 2014, President Xi Jinping and leaders of Latin American and Caribbean countries jointly announced the establishment of the China-Latin America Forum. In January of the following year, the first ministerial meeting of the China-Latin America Forum was successfully held in Beijing, marking the official launch of the China-Latin America Forum. Over the past decade, the China-Latin America Forum has flourished and its mechanisms have been improved day by day. It has become an important platform for enhancing political mutual trust between China and Latin America, strengthening the docking of development strategies, and promoting mutual understanding among the people. Faced with the profoundly evolved international situation, China and Latin America firmly defend multilateralism, jointly issued a strong voice of the era of global and southern unity and self-reliance, set up a model of South-South cooperation, and promote the continuous development of the construction of a community with a shared future between China and Latin America.

  Join hands, China-Latin America's political mutual trust continues to deepen. In recent years, the top leaders of China and Latin America have maintained close interaction and strategic communication. China-Latin America relations have experienced the test of international changes and have entered a new stage of equality, mutual benefit, innovation, openness and benefiting the people. In recent years, Panama, Dominican, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras and other countries have successively established or restored diplomatic relations with China. China's relations with regional countries have been improved and upgraded. China's relations with Brazil have been positioned as a joint effort between China and Pakistan with a more just world and a more sustainable planet. Relations with Venezuela have been upgraded into an all-weather strategic partnership, Uruguay has been upgraded into a comprehensive strategic partnership, and strategic partnerships with Colombia and Nicaragua have been established. China's global development initiatives, global security initiatives and global civilization initiatives are also increasingly recognized by more Latin American countries.

  Mutual benefit and win-win, China-Latin America economic and trade cooperation continues to expand. Over the past decade, China-Latin America's economic and trade cooperation has achieved gratifying results: China-Latin America's trade volume has continued to rise, and China has firmly ranked as the second largest trading partner of Latin America; as of the end of 2023, China's direct investment stock in Latin America reached US$600.8 billion, Latin America has become China's second largest overseas investment destination; the "circle of friends" of jointly building the "Belt and Road" in Latin America has been expanding, and China has signed a memorandum of understanding on jointly building the "Belt and Road" with more than 20 Latin America and Caribbean countries, and a number of landmark major projects have been steadily advancing, and the potential for cooperation has been continuously released. As of November last year, China has five free trade partners in Latin America, signed early harvest arrangements for the free trade agreement with Honduras, and substantively completed negotiations on the upgrade of the free trade agreement with Peru. As the free trade dividend continues to be released, China-Latin America economic and trade cooperation has shown a broader prospect. China has become the largest exporter of Chilean cherries for seven consecutive years, with more than 90% of Chilean cherries being sold to China; in Ecuador, 37 of every 100 cars sold come from China.

  Moving towards new things, China-Latin America cooperation will improve quality and demonstrate its achievements. Under the framework of the China-Latin America Forum, activities such as the China-Latin America Science and Technology Innovation Forum, the China-Latin America Digital Technology Cooperation Forum, and the China-Latin America Aerospace Cooperation Forum were successfully held. China-Latin America economic and trade cooperation continues to expand from traditional fields to new energy, digital technology, cross-border e-commerce and other fields, and constantly releases new vitality. At the same time, China and Latin America jointly build the "Belt and Road" to a new level of cooperation. In Trinidad and Tobago, the "Belt and Road" flagship project Phoenix Industrial Park has become the first environmentally friendly light industrial park in Latin America with full coverage of 5G networks, promoting local industrial upgrading; in the streets of big cities such as Colombia, Bogota and Medellin, more and more Chinese brand electric taxis have become a new landscape for urban green transportation; China's cloud computing, big data and artificial intelligence technologies have widely empowered Latin American finance, education, culture and entertainment industries, and helped local enterprises to transform digitally.

  Openness and inclusiveness, the fruits of China-Latin America's development benefit the people. China provides scholarship quotas and training quotas to member states of the Latin America community, implements "small but beautiful" people's livelihood cooperation projects locally, and sets up Confucius Institutes or Confucius Classrooms in more than 20 Latin American countries. Luban Workshop, Chinese Workshop, etc. have strengthened cooperation between China and Latin America in the field of vocational education. Cultural exchange activities such as the "China-Latin America Cultural Exchange Year" and the "Bridge of the Future" China-Latin America Youth Leaders Training Exchange Camp continue to be carried out to promote mutual learning between China and Latin America civilizations and mutual understanding between the people. Recently, the Mexico City Metro New Line 1 held a partial opening ceremony. Chinese companies helped to comprehensively upgrade the system equipment and improve citizens' commuting experience, becoming a microcosm of China-Latin America cooperation benefiting the people.

  Together, China and Latin America have a strong voice in the global Southern era. At present, changes in the world, history, and times are unfolding in unprecedented ways, and global uncertainty, instability and unpredictability factors have increased significantly. As practitioners of true multilateralism, China and Latin America maintain good communication and cooperation on global issues. In May last year, China and Brazil jointly issued a "six-point consensus" on political resolution of the Ukrainian crisis, which received widespread support and response. In January this year, Bolivia, Cuba and other countries became BRICS partners, and cooperation between southern countries around the world is increasingly becoming a new trend of the times. Recently, in the face of unilateralism, protectionism and bullying, China has decisively and effectively countermeasures, and its just move has won wide support from the vast number of developing countries, including Latin American countries. The ninth Summit of the Latin Community passed the Tegucigalpa Declaration, calling for common development through unity and cooperation, reflecting the collective call of the global South to promote global governance reform.

  Ten years of wind and rain, ten years of spring and autumn fruits. Standing at a new historical starting point, China-Latin America relations in the new era usher in a broader development prospect. As an important platform for gathering friendly forces from all sides of China and Latin America, the China-Latin America Forum will further promote the deepening and practical cooperation between China and Latin America, continue to inject stability and positive energy into the turbulent world, promote the steady and long-term construction of a community of shared future between China and Latin America, and start the next bright decade for China-Latin America relations.

[Editor in charge: Qiu Lifang]