Chinese premier's LatAm visit marks new stage in ties

SANTIAGO -- Chinese Premier Li Keqiang's Latin America tour marks another step toward "a new type of relationship with Latin America and the Caribbean," says a UN official.

Osvaldo Rosales, director of the International Trade and Integration Division of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), spoke with Xinhua about Li's ongoing visit to Brazil, Colombia, Peru and Chile.

"The premier's visit consolidates one stage in the relationship between China and Latin America, and opens another new stage leading on from Chinese President Xi Jinping's meeting with Latin American leaders in Brazil in July 2014," said Rosales.

Recent events attest to the evolution of the bilateral relationship, said Rosales.

The first ministerial meeting of the China-Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) Cooperation Forum took place this year in Beijing, and the two sides agreed that their bilateral agenda should develop along practical lines and center on specific projects.

More recently in Quito, Ecuador, CELAC national coordinators gathered to further implement the forum's agenda, with the attendance of an official for Latin American affairs from the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

CELAC foreign ministers are now set to meet in Santiago in the coming days to, among other things, review the proposals for cooperation laid out in the 2015-2019 China-CELAC Cooperation Plan.

"Li's visit will give added impetus to this new stage, which began with the China-CELAC Cooperation Forum for the 2015-2019 period," said Rosales.

The plan contains 13 points, including eight economic points, said Rosales, adding that "it's time to hold technical meetings to transform these general ideas into specific projects that will generate investment in sub-regional cooperation programs in agriculture, industry, infrastructure, energy, education, tourism, environment, etc."

Latin American nations, said Rosales, should also use this trip to update their consensus on the region's cooperation agenda with China, so when the next forum is held in Chile in 2018, "it will mark another step in deepening ties, not merely be an opportunity to reiterate the good intentions already expressed in Beijing in January 2015."