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Vice Foreign Minister Li Jinzhang Talks About Vice President Xi Jinping's Visits to Latin America and Europe

2009-02-26 15:36

From February 8 to 22, the first lunar month in China, Vice President Xi Jinping visited on invitation 5 Latin American and Caribbean countries - Mexico, Jamaica, Colombia, Venezuela, and Brazil, visited Malta in transit and made a transit stop in Fiji. During the 15-day tour, Vice President Xi traveled 50,000 kilometers. With a rich agenda and a tight schedule, the tour was pragmatic and efficient and achieved fruitful results. It was a powerful impetus to the growth of bilateral relations between China and the host countries and fulfilled the goal of "consolidating friendship, expanding consensus, deepening cooperation and promoting development". The visits were a complete success. Vice Foreign Minister Li Jinzhang, who accompanied Vice President Xi during the visits, briefed the accompanying journalists in the delegation about the tour on the way back to China after Vice President Xi concluded his tour.

I. The Visits Are of Great Significance and Far-reaching Impact

Li Jinzhang said that Vice President Xi's visits to Latin America countries, visit to Malta in transit and transit stop in Fiji were a major diplomatic move of China to these countries and regions.

Li said that President Hu paid a successful visit to Latin America last year, during which he made an important speech entitled "Building a Comprehensive Cooperative Partnership between China and Latin America in the New Era" and reached broad consensus with related countries on the further development of bilateral relations. Earlier, China issued the Policy Paper on Latin America and the Caribbean. During his visits to the five Latin American nations, Xi further expounded China's policies on Latin America in accordance with the spirit of President Hu's speech and China’s policy document on Latin America and stressed that China is ready to join hands with Latin American nations to carry out cooperation at higher levels and in broader areas so as to achieve the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and elevate China-Latin America relations to a new high. At the opening ceremony of the China-Venezuela business seminar, Vice President Xi made a keynote speech entitled "Strengthening Comprehensive Cooperation and Achieving Common Development" and raised a four-point proposal on strengthening the cooperation between China and Latin American nations in the context of the current global economic situation. Therefore, Xi's visits to Latin America were actually a follow-up action that aims at pushing forward China's relations with Latin America.

Li said that Vice President Xi’s visits were made at a time when the international financial crisis continued to spread and proliferate and before the G-20 Summit in London. During the visits, Xi called on the countries to have a far-sighted, strategic and long-term perspective, make integrated and coordinated planning, build confidence, and seize opportunities. He also urged a combination of promoting mutually beneficial bilateral cooperation and ensuring the steady and sustained growth of China's economy. As a result, his visits produced good results and far-reaching political implications. In a certain sense, his visits were a practical action taken by China to work together with related countries to discuss ways to address the international financial crisis and turn the crisis into an opportunity.

Li said that most of the host countries are developing countries. During the visits, Xi repeatedly underlined that developing countries need to work together in tiding over the financial crisis. He also had extensive exchanges of views with the leaders of these countries on implementing the United Nations Millennium Development Goals and working together to deal with the challenges and achieve common development. Broad consensus was reached. Vice President Xi’s visits were also a practical action taken by China to work hand in hand with developing countries to overcome the current hard times.

II. The Visits Received Wide Attention and Warm Response from the Host Countries

The seven host countries all attached great importance to Vice President Xi’s visits and accorded him high standard of courtesy and reception. Vice President Xi met respectively with the heads of state, heads of government, speakers of parliament, leaders of political parties, and friendly people from all walks of live. Some state leaders personally went to the airport to welcome and send off Vice President Xi. A head of state made a special trip to meet with and hold a banquet for him. The president of a country accompanied him in almost all the activities. The parliament of a country even passed a resolution to award a Medal of Honor to him. All these reflected their profound friendship to the Chinese leadership and people.

Vice President Xi’s visits triggered the enthusiasm of the host countries to cooperate with China. The governments and the business communities voiced their willingness to cooperate with China and welcomed China to trade with and invest in their countries and join them in exploitation of energy and natural resources and infrastructure development. There was a strong passion to deepen the all-round and mutually beneficial cooperation with China.

The media of the seven host countries spoke highly of Vice President Xi’s visits. The Latin American media thanked China for the sincere help and highly praised China for helping Latin American countries tide over the crisis despite its own difficulties in the context of the financial crisis and for being a responsible big country. Jamaica’s Observer published an editorial, praising China for rendering timely assistance to Jamaica when the international financial crisis hit and the world's capital markets closed their doors to Jamaica. “The force of the wind tests the strength of the grass and the misfortune tests the sincerity of friends."

III. The Visits to Get Across China’s Positions and Propositions on Key International Issues

Vice President Xi’s visits spanned three continents and two oceans. In every stop, he took the opportunity to expound China's positions and propositions on key issues such as the international situation, the global financial crisis, the upcoming G20 Summit in London, WTO’s Doha round of trade talks and the UN reforms, introduce the achievements made by China since its founding 60 years ago and since the reform and opening up 30 years ago as well as the thinking and measures taken by China to deal with the financial crisis, and have in-depth exchanges of views with leaders of the host countries on enhancing cooperation and jointly tiding over the economic difficulties. These substantial efforts promoted the friendship and expanded the consensus between China and the host countries.

The seven host countries spoke highly of China's role in stabilizing the global economic and financial situation and promoting world peace and development. Mexican and Brazilian leaders expressed their willingness to step up cooperation with China in international organizations and multilateral mechanisms such as the United Nations, the five major developing countries, and BRIC countries, and work together with China to establish a new international order that is fairer and more rational, deal with the international financial crisis and win a greater say for the developing countries. Colombian and Jamaican leaders appreciated China's contributions to stabilizing the world economy, saying the steady and relatively fast growth of China's economy will help other countries overcome financial crisis at an early date.

During the visits, Xi also reiterated China's positions on the Taiwan and Tibet-related issues and welcomed the host countries to participate in the Shanghai World Expo in 2010. All the countries responded favorably and reaffirmed their adherence to the one-China principle and position.

IV. The Visits Have a Rich Agenda and Achieved Fruitful Results

During this visits, Vice President Xi attended 79 events and held talks with the leaders of the seven countries, during which they had candid, friendly and in-depth exchanges of views on bilateral ties and other major international and regional issues of common concern, consulted about how to work together to cope with the international financial crisis, and discussed the thinking on the development of bilateral relations and the promotion of mutually beneficial cooperation. He also witnessed the signing of over 60 cooperation documents that aim at promoting the pragmatic cooperation in economy, finance, energy, mining, agriculture, infrastructure, high-tech, culture and other fields.

Vice President Xi also had extensive contacts with leaders of parliaments, political parties, local governments, and people from the media, academic communities and friendship organizations of the host countries. He attended the China-Mexico, China-Columbia and China-Venezuela business seminars and delivered speeches. In Jamaica, he attended the board-unveiling ceremony of the Confucius Institute and the groundbreaking ceremony of Montego Bay Convention Center, a Chinese aided cooperation project. He visited the Chinese Cultural Center in Malta. During the visits, Vice President Xi also visited the embassy staff, working staffs of Chinese-funded institutions, representatives of overseas Chinese students and overseas Chinese, encouraging them to make efforts to promote the friendly relations between China and the host countries.

Vice President Xi's visits uplifted China's relations with the seven countries, expanded the mutual political trust and strategic consensus, deepened bilateral pragmatic cooperation, and promoted the overall development of relations between China and Latin America and between China and Europe. Through the visits, the Chinese leaders demonstrated an open and pragmatic attitude and their commitments to building a harmonious world with other countries. The visits helped China win respect and friendship and consolidated the social foundation for China to carry out friendly exchanges and mutually beneficial cooperation with related countries.

V. Promising Prospects and Great Potentials for Future Cooperation

China and related countries enjoy complementary advantages in resources, capital, technology, market and other areas and therefore have great potentials for cooperation. Under the new consensus reached during Xi's visits, China will strengthen cooperation with the host countries in such areas as trade, finance, energy, mining, agriculture, infrastructure development, high-tech and culture. This will lay a solid foundation for China and these countries to draw on each other's strength and achieve mutual benefit and win-win progress. The cooperation between China and related countries enjoy promising prospects and great potentials.

Li concluded his introduction with an old Chinese saying, “Long distance never separates close friends and true neighbors don’t necessarily live next door”. China and the seven host countries are geographically far apart and have different social and cultural traditions, but the peoples have expressed an earnest wish to enhance friendship. Vice President Xi Jinping's visits conformed to the wishes of the people. China and related countries, with the visits as a driving force, will work together to push forward bilateral relations.

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