Costa Rican and Chinese leaders meet in state visit to China

BRICS

Costa Rican President Luis Guillermo Solis met with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of People in Beijing today as part of his state visit to China Jan. 4-10. The two leaders announced the establishment of a strategic partnership. CCTV’s Su Yuting reported this story from Beijing.

Xi welcomed Solis in China’s first visit from a foreign head of state in 2015. They also signed several documents and issued a joint statement to strengthen political exchange, expand economic and trade cooperation, and promote people-to-people exchanges. The two leaders previously met in Brasilia, Brazil, last year during the BRICS Summit.

“The ties between China and Costa Rica are ‘like a growing elephant-ear tree of the Americas,’ That’s what I said when we met in July last year. You also said Costa Rica hopes to build a ‘Great Wall’ of solidarity and cooperation between our two countries. Today,we announced the establishment of a strategic partnership of mutual trust and win-win cooperation, showing our steady will for promoting bilateral relations,” Xi said.

The Chinese president also urged to work on a 2016-2020 China-Costa Rica cooperation plan and to continue the existing free-trade agreements between the two countries.

Solis’s visit comes at a significant time, just ahead of the first ministerial meeting of CELAC, the China and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States forum.

Costa Rica is the current rotating president of CELAC and the country is widely considered a bridge connecting China and Latin America.

“The Costa Rican government and people are grateful for China’s support in our economic development. We hope there will be deeper cooperation in various fields, including science and technology, education, investment and infrastructure construction,” Solis said.

Since the establishment of diplomatic ties in 2007, China and Costa Rica relations have developed quickly, with frequent high-level exchanges.