The First Foreign Minister Meeting of the East Asia-Latin American Forum on Cooperation was closed on March 30, 2001 in Santiago, the capital of Chile. The Meeting published a communiqué, entrusting the Philippines and Colombia as the coordinators for the next Foreign Minister Meeting. After the closing session, the co-chairmen issued the Statement of the Chairmen and hosted a press conference together with the designated coordinators for the next Meeting.

Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan also held a press conference and answered questions from foreign and Chinese correspondents. Tang said that the First Foreign Minister Meeting of East Asia-Latin American Forum on Cooperation is very successful and has achieved some concrete results. First, the attendance of the Meeting by Foreign Ministers or Representatives from 30 countries on the coasts of the Pacific to discuss the mechanism for cooperation and dialogue is by itself a demonstration of the positive significance of the Meeting. It shows that the cooperation between the two major regions has made the first step. Secondly, the Meeting has passed the "Framework Document" in which clear definition has been made on the purpose, target, principle and procedures of the Forum. It is a programmatic document charting the orientation of development of the Forum. Thirdly, the Meeting has decided to convene the Foreign Minister Meeting every the other two years and the Senior Officials Meeting annually. Three working groups will be set up. The participants of the Meeting have raised quite a number of projects for cooperation in the areas of economy, trade, social welfare, education, etc. The Chinese side declared that it would run five projects including the project of training personnel, demonstrating the positive attitude adopted by China towards the Forum. Fourthly, the Meeting has decided to accept Cuba, Costa Rica and Salvador as new members making the Forum with greater representation.

Foreign Minister Tang made a positive appraisal of the traditional cooperation between China and Chile. He noted that since the establishment of diplomatic relations, the relations between the two countries have been developing smoothly. The friendship between China and Chile has struck root in the hearts of the two peoples and the relationship has ushered in the stage of mature and in-depth development. In recent years, China and Chile have conducted fruitful cooperation in all fields, supported and coordinated with each other in international and regional affairs. Tang went on to say that China is the biggest developing country and Latin American is the continent congregating quite a few developing countries. Politically, China and Latin American countries all love peace and strive for common development. Economically the two economies are highly complementary. In recent years, China and many Latin American countries have conducted good cooperation. President Jiang Zemin 's upcoming visit to the six countries in Latin America is of great importance, which will help to push forward the development of the friendly relations and cooperation between China and Latin America in the new century.

Answering the question whether President Jiang's upcoming visit to the six countries in Latin America is a diplomatic offensive directed against a certain country, Tang remarked that China has always attached importance to the friendly cooperative relations with the Latin American countries. Although we are already in an era of high-tech and information, direct contact and dialogue between leaders play an important and irreplaceable role in promoting exchanges between countries.