China, Bolivia back more Belt and Road efforts

China and Bolivia vowed to deepen high-quality Belt and Road cooperation to accelerate each other's development and shore up multilateral coordination to uphold multilateralism, as Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with Bolivian Foreign Minister Celinda Sosa in Beijing on Wednesday.

China expressed appreciation for Sosa's call for China-Latin America and the Caribbean solidarity and self-strengthening, believing Bolivia will continue to play a pivotal role in advancing China-LAC cooperation, Wang said, adding that it also congratulated Bolivia on becoming a BRICS partner country.

He noted that China is willing to strengthen communication and coordination with Bolivia in multilateral mechanisms and defend international fairness and justice.

This year marks the 40th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Bolivia and the 200th anniversary of Bolivia's independence.

China will continue to support Bolivia on issues concerning each other's core interests, acting as trustworthy friends, good partners for shared development, and good brother of close coordination, Wang said.

Both sides should further deepen high-quality Belt and Road cooperation and speed up the signing of a bilateral investment protection agreement to better support each other's modernization, he added.

In response, Sosa said Bolivia fully endorses China's proposal to build a China-LAC community with a shared future, particularly the five programs, and looks forward to working with other CELAC members and China to implement the Beijing Declaration and the Joint Action Plan.

Bolivia highly values BRICS cooperation and aims to strengthen Global South solidarity and enhance developing countries' representation and voice through this platform, she added.

Describing China as a reliable strategic partner, she noted Bolivia seeks to leverage opportunities under the Belt and Road Initiative to deepen bilateral cooperation across the board and reiterated the country's unwavering stance on adhering to the one-China principle.