China today expressed its willingness to work more with Latin America and the Caribbean to deepen friendship and expand cooperation, emphasizing that the region is not anyone's backyard.
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Foreign Minister Wang Yi told Prensa Latina that the parties’ common goal is to consolidate independence, development, and recovery.
Wang deplored the harassment and abuse of political power in that area and indicated that their peoples need justice and win-win cooperation.
According to the Chinese FM, since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, China has strengthened health exchanges with Latin American and Caribbean nations, supplying them with almost 400 million doses of vaccines and units of health products.
He also highlighted the record figure of 400 billion dollars in trade operations during 2021.
In which I debunk this ridiculous idea that China is somehow the "new colonial power" in Latin America and the Caribbean. China brings trade, aid, investment, Covid vaccines. The West brings wars, coups, regime change, destabilisation, sanctions. There's a difference. https://t.co/GfMU7tCfjr
— Carlos Martinez (@agent_of_change) March 2, 2022
Likewise, the celebration of the third China-CELAC (Community of Latin American and Caribbean States) ministerial summit, which he valued as a space for broad consensus and deepening of mutual trust and cooperation for the next three years.
When Cuba in September 1960 recognized the People’s Republic of China as the only legitimate representative of its people in the world, it opened the way for an approach between China and Latin America based on meeting points and respect for the free choice of each political system and development strategy.
From 2017 to 2021 Panama, Dominican Republic, El Salvador and Nicaragua were the last to make the sovereign determination to establish ties with China, while Argentina joined the Belt and Road project, which seeks to build a broad network of infrastructure and trade operations by land and sea.