Belt&Road Initiative new focus for China-Latin America cooperation: FM

PANAMA CITY,Sept. 18 (Xinhua) -- Visiting Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi saidhere Sunday that the Belt and Road Initiative has become a newfocus for cooperation between China and Latin America.

Wang made theremarks at a joint press conference with Isabel Saint Malo deAlvarado, Panama's vice president and foreign minister, followingtheir meeting.

China has alwaysattached great importance to the development of its relationshipswith Latin American and Caribbean countries from a long-term andstrategic perspective, he said.

"We hold a firmbelief that the development of China and the development of LatinAmerica present opportunities for each other. We observe anexplicit principle of sticking to equality and mutual benefitsbetween China and Latin America and focusing on common development.We have adopted a general guideline which is to jointly build acommunity of shared future for China and Latin America," Wangsaid.

He also notedthat the China-Latin America cooperation will neither target athird party, nor affect their relations with a third country,adding that it is aimed at promoting overall development for LatinAmerican nations, as well as their international standing.

The Belt andRoad Initiative, put forward by Chinese President Xi Jinping in2013, is aimed at building the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21stCentury Maritime Silk Road through concerted efforts of all relatedcountries to benefit all participants by promoting unimpeded trade,financial integration, infrastructure connectivity and closerpeople-to-people exchanges.

Wang said LatinAmerica lies in a key direction where the 21st Century MaritimeSilk Road extends, and by constructing the Belt and Road togetherthe two sides can see new opportunities to grow bilateral ties.

Wang also saidPanama is a communication hub in the Western hemisphere with awell-developed financial sector, adding that it can become a jointthat can facilitate the exchange of goods, funds and humanresources between China and the region, and plays a special and keyrole in serving the Maritime Silk Road's extension into LatinAmerica.