President Xi Jinping left on May 31st for his first visits to the three Latin American Countries---Trinidad and Tobago, Costa Rica and Mexico since he become the Chinese President. This is an important diplomatic mission for China to further advance its relationship with Latin America. The visits will not only promote the deeper and more comprehensive development of China’s bilateral relationships to the three states, but also invigorate China-Latin America relations, producing far-reaching impacts
Both as developing countries, China and Latin American countries are respectively the world’s most dynamic and vigorous emerging country and region. Both are seeking development and prosperity. As mutual partners, China and Latin America aspire for an in-depth relationship with enhanced cooperation in various sectors. The “China-Latin America Forum” proposed by China is an effort in this regard to elevate the comprehensive China-Latin America cooperation to a higher level.
Trinidad and Tobago is an important Caribbean country which established diplomatic relations with China on June 20th，1974, and since then has been China’s important cooperative partner in this region. Mr. Xi’s visit, the first ever in 39 years by a Chinese president is a milestone event with historic significance in that it will accelerate the development of the China-Trinidad and Tobago comprehensive cooperation. The establishment of friendly cooperative relationship of mutual benefit between the two countries in 2005 has greatly promoted the cooperation in the economic, trade, and infrastructure fields. The trade volume of the two countries reached 450 million USD in 2012. During the visit, President Xi will also hold bilateral talks with the leaders from other Caribbean countries, such as Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, the Bahamas, The Commonwealth of Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, The Republic of Suriname, and  Jamaica to exchange views on further consolidating the China’s friendships to the above-mentioned countries on advancing the relations between China and the Caribbean countries.
An influential country in Central America, Costa Rica established diplomatic ties with China on June 1st,2007, the first country in this region to do so. Since then, China-Costa Rica cooperation has witnessed fast development in economy and trade, science and technology, culture, and education, and maintained a favorable and positive momentum. The Free Trade Agreement signed in April 2010 and put into effect in August 2011 resulted in a total bilateral trade volume of 6.172 billion USD in 2012. China’s aid programs has brought substantive benefits to the people of Costa Rica. In return, Costa Rica offers many feasible suggestions on advancing the cooperation between China and other Central American countries. Mr. Xi’s visit will upgrade the China-Costa Rica relations.
Mexico is an major rising country in Latin America and keeps a time-honored relationship with China. The two countries established diplomatic relations on February 14th,1972 and ever since the two countries have kept regular exchange of visits by successive top leaders and other high-level reciprocal visits. The bilateral pragmatic cooperation in economy and trade, science and technology, culture, education and humanities has yielded rich results. China is Mexico’s second largest trading partner; Mexico is China’s second largest trading partner in Latin America with the bilateral trade volume reached 36.68 billion USD in 2012. The strategic partnership established in December 2003 has deepened the cooperation and exchange between the two countries in various sectors. Both countries emphasize consultation and coordination in multilateral organizations such as the UN, the G20 Summit, and the APEC Summit. President Xi’s visit to Mexico will certainly usher in a new stage of increased mutual trust, cooperation and all win to address common challenges.
Mr. Xi’s visits show again that China sees its relations with Latin American countries from a strategic level, and adheres to the principle of equality among countries, whatever their size and strength. China not only pays attention to rising Latin American countries such Mexico, but also pays no less attention to small and medium-sized countries like Trinidad and Tobago, Costa Rica. China not only values its bilateral relationships with these countries but also values these countries’ special and important role in China-Latin America relations, in Central American, the Caribbean and international affairs.
A bosom friend afar brings a distant land near. China and Latin American are far away from each other, but the shared dream of seeking development and pursuing happiness brings close the hearts of the two peoples. It is the common anticipation of China and Latin America that President Xi’s visits produce rich outcomes for the new development of China-Latin America relations.

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