President: Belt, Road needs Latin flavor

Pacific Ocean is not seen as a barrier to cooperation

President Xi Jinping has called on Latin American and Caribbean countries to jointly map out the blueprint for developing the Belt and Road Initiative and building a road of cooperation that crosses the Pacific Ocean.

Xi called for the cooperation in a congratulatory letter at the opening of the Second Ministerial Meeting of the China and Community of Latin American and Caribbean States Forum in Santiago, Chile's capital.

Aside from China, the meeting included representatives of 33 countries from Latin America and the Caribbean.

In the letter, Xi called for better connections between China and Latin America and ushering in a new era of China-Latin American ties.

Xi noted that, historically, Chinese ancestors explored the Maritime Silk Road by riding the tides and waves, and in recent years many countries in the region have responded warmly after he put forward the Belt and Road Initiative four years ago.

Xi attended and addressed the forum's first ministerial meeting in Beijing in 2015.

In his letter, Xi noted that the forum has become a main channel of overall China-Latin America cooperation and has facilitated fruitful outcomes in various fields.

Despite the distance between them, China and the region's members all are developing countries, and they have common aspirations of world peace, prosperity, development and the public's happiness, Xi said.

The Chinese people are willing to join hands with people in Latin America and the Caribbean to make a greater contribution toward building a community with a shared future for mankind, Xi said.

Foreign Minister Wang Yi attended the meeting.

Despite the region's great distance from China, it is naturally accessible through the Belt and Road Initiative and it has enjoyed solid cooperation with China in areas such as connectivity and infrastructure, Wang told local media.

The term "Belt and Road" has seen increasing popularity in Latin America, which has become the second-largest destination of Chinese investment overseas.

Wu Hongying, a senior Latin American researcher at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, noted that Chinese enterprises have established more than 2,000 businesses in Latin America, and bilateral trade in the first 10 months of 2017 exceeded $210 billion.

"The region is making an integral part of joint efforts in developing the Belt and Road Initiative", and the synergy between the initiative and the development blueprints of the Latin American countries will help open a new window of opportunity for growth, Wu said.

Senior officials of Caribbean and Latin American countries have voiced their countries' readiness to expand cooperation with China through the Belt and Road Initiative.

Xinhua and Reuters contributed to this story.