Chinese president Xi Jinping assured that China “will always be a good friend and partner” of Latin American and Caribbean countries, in a congratulatory message sent Saturday to the 10th CELAC summit in Colombia.
In his message, Xi highlighted the role of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) in “promoting stability, development” and “cooperation of the Global South,” and reiterated Beijing’s support for Latin American and Caribbean countries in “defending sovereignty, security and development interests,” according to China’s foreign ministry.
The Chinese leader stressed that the China-CELAC relationship has advanced over the past year, following the 4th Ministerial Meeting of the China-CELAC Forum held in Beijing in May 2025, at which the parties agreed to advance a cooperation agenda centred on five areas: unity, development, civilisation, peace and people-to-people exchanges.
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That meeting, attended by several Latin American leaders, approved an action plan for 2025-2027 with around one hundred projects and a 60 billion yuan (approximately $376 million) credit line, against a backdrop of growing economic and political ties between the regions.
Saturday’s events in Bogotá were marked by the CELAC-Africa High-Level Forum, in which countries from both regions united to reject all forms of domination — from past slavery and colonialism to present-day blockades and wars — as Colombia handed the organisation’s pro tempore presidency to Uruguay.
