On June 2, 2013, President Xi Jinping, who was on a state visit to Trinidad and Tobago, held a luncheon for state leaders of Caribbean countries in Port of Spain, capital of Trinidad and Tobago. President of Trinidad and Tobago Anthony Carmona and Mrs. Carmona, Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago Kamla Persad-Bissessar, President Desi Bouterse of the Republic of ,Suriname, President Donald Ramotar of the Republic of Guyana, Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit of the Commonwealth of Dominica, Prime Minister Freundel Stuart of Barbados, Prime Minister Portia Simpson-Miller of Jamaica, Prime Minister Perry Christie of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas, Prime Minister Keith Mitchel of Grenada, and Deputy Prime Minister Harold Lovell of Antigua and Barbuda were present at the invitation. President Xi shared with these state leaders his view of friendship, cooperation, and the bright future for China-Caribbean relations.

At the opening, Xi Jinping said, I intended to go more countries in this visit to the Caribbean region, but the tight schedule did not allow it. So I invited everyone to Trinidad and Tobago for a meeting. I thank you for coming. Hope we can take this opportunity to exchange views on developing China-Caribbean relations.

Xi Jinping noted that the relations between China and the Caribbean countries have withstood the test of the dramatic changes of international situation and become closer and more mature. In the past, the two sides provided steadfast support to each other in their great struggle for national independence; at present, the priority for the two sides is how to make concerted efforts to seek common development and benefit the peoples more from development and cooperation. In recent years, the two sides have carried out quite a number of cooperation projects and reaped good results in infrastructure construction, agriculture, medical treatment, personnel training and other fields.

Xi Jinping announced that, in order to get more wired in the cooperation between China and the Caribbeans, China will enhance the support to the Caribbean countries for their economic development, including to provide assistance for those projects settled by the two sides, on the basis of the promotion of implementation of the measures set at the 3rd China-Caribbean Economic and Trade Cooperation Forum. China will set up one or two agriculture technology demonstration centers in the region within the next three years, send 100 Chinese medical staff to help in the region, train 100 part-time postgraduate students for Caribbean countries and provide government scholarships for 1,000 Caribbean students. Hope these measures will be conducive to cooperation between the two sides.

Xi Jinping reiterated that China is firmly committed to developing the comprehensive cooperative partnership with Caribbean countries. He said that as long as the two sides uphold the principles of mutual respect, equality, mutual benefit and common development, accumulate experiences, explore new possibilities, make full use of their advantages, tap the potentials and expand bilateral cooperation, China and Caribbean countries can be good partners with political mutual respect and trust, mutual benefit and complementary for economy and trade, and learn from each other in the field of culture. Te two sides can achieve common development and make positive contributions to the prosperity and progress of the mankind.

The Caribbean leaders highly applauded the friendship between the Caribbeans and China and thanked China for the long-term assistance. They welcomed the new measures for China-Caribbean cooperation, which was put forward by the Chinese side , expressing their belief that it will boost the development of Caribbean countries. Facts have proven that Caribbean countries and China are friends with mutual respect as well as cooperative partners with mutual benefit. Caribbean countries value the opportunities brought by the development of China and are willing to step up cooperation with China so as to make progress together. They wished the Chinese people could realize the Chinese dream as early as possible.

Peng Liyuan, Wang Huning, Li Zhanshu and Yang Jiechi were present at the luncheon.