Chilean president: Chile to play positive role in LatAm-China joint building of Belt & Road

Chile's President Michelle Bachelet on Monday said the Belt and Road Initiative provides a fresh opportunity for the development of Latin-America, and Chile is willing to play a positive role to promote joint efforts in building the Belt and Road.

Chilean President Michelle Bachelet (L) meets with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Santiago, Chile, Jan. 22, 2018. [Photo/Xinhua]

Bachelet made the remarks during her meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi ahead of the second ministerial meeting under the framework of China-CELAC (the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States) Forum.

Over the past years, Chile and China established the comprehensive strategic partnership, signed a deal on upgrading bilateral free trade agreement, and achieved new fruits in mutual beneficial cooperation in various fields, Bachelet said.

Comprehensively deepening the Chilean-Chinese cooperation has become the consensus of all Chilean parties, the President said, expressing the hope that the second ministerial meeting will achieve a complete success.

Wang appreciated Bachelet's leading role in pushing forward people-to-people exchanges and smooth and sustainable development of China-Chile relations.

He said more achievements are expected under the framework of the comprehensive strategic partnership between China and Chile, and more Latin-American countries are welcome to the joint efforts in building the Belt and Road.

China hopes to fully deepen and upgrade China-Latin America cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative, Wang said.