10 years on, with dedicated nurturing of both sides, the China-CELAC Forum has grown from a tender sapling into a towering tree, said Chinese President Xi Jinping in his keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the forum's fourth ministerial meeting.

BEIJING, May 14 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping announced on Tuesday the launch of five major programs to advance China's shared development and revitalization with Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries at the just concluded fourth ministerial meeting of a key cooperation platform for the two sides in Beijing.

The five programs, ranging from solidarity, development and civilization to peace and people-to-people connectivity, provide a clear roadmap for deepening cooperation and advancing the common goals of both sides.

Over the past decade since the China-CELAC (the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States) Forum was established, political trust between China and LAC countries has been strengthened, their development strategies aligned, and cultural exchanges promoted.

FROM SAPLING TO PILLAR

The seeds of the forum were sown in July 2014, when President Xi paid a state visit to Brazil and attended the first meeting between leaders of China and LAC countries.

At that meeting in Brasilia almost 11 years ago, the leaders agreed to establish the China-CELAC Forum, an institutional framework to advance the vision of building a China-LAC community with a shared future.

"At that meeting, President Xi held a very frank dialogue with Latin American leaders, focusing on issues such as poverty alleviation and infrastructure improvement," recalled Valdemar Carneiro Leao, who witnessed the historic event as then Brazilian ambassador to China.

"The China-CELAC Forum is a newborn, just like a young shoot sprouting out of the earth, whose sturdy growth into a towering tree needs meticulous cultivation of both sides," Xi said at the first ministerial meeting of the forum in 2015.

In his keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the fourth ministerial meeting of the forum on Tuesday, Xi revisited the metaphor, saying that 10 years on, with dedicated nurturing of both sides, the forum has grown from a tender sapling into a towering tree.

Having witnessed how China-LAC relations have withstood global turbulence with ever-growing mutual political trust, Leao said Xi's initiative to create the China-CELAC Forum has a forward-looking vision of the times.

Since its inception, the forum has grown into a robust platform for cooperation as China and the CELAC Quartet have held eight rounds of foreign ministerial dialogues to date, alongside more than 100 events spanning agricultural production, technological innovation, poverty reduction, green development, disaster response, defense cooperation, think tank exchanges and anti-corruption efforts.

Meanwhile, a range of institutional platforms, including the China-LAC Sustainable Food Innovation Center and the China-LAC Technology Transfer Center, have also taken root, helping the forum become a pillar of China-LAC cooperation.

"China-LAC cooperation has experienced a splendid golden decade, and is about to enter an even more promising diamond decade," said Song Junying, director of the Department for Latin American and Caribbean Studies at the China Institute of International Studies.

COMMON GROWTH, SHARED FUTURE

China and LAC countries ride the tide of progress together to pursue win-win cooperation, Xi said on Tuesday, noting that while embracing the trend of economic globalization, the two sides have deepened cooperation in trade, investment, finance, science and technology, infrastructure, among other fields.

In the framework of high-quality Belt and Road cooperation, China and LAC countries have implemented more than 200 infrastructure projects, creating over a million jobs and forging a path of cooperation bridging the Pacific.

Notable examples include the China-LAC satellite cooperation program, which has become a model for high-tech South-South collaboration and the inauguration of Chancay Port in Peru, which has created a new land-and-sea connectivity link between Asia and Latin America.

China has also signed free trade agreements with Chile, Peru, Costa Rica, Ecuador and Nicaragua. Last year, trade between China and LAC countries exceeded 500 billion U.S. dollars for the first time, an increase of over 40 times from the beginning of this century.

For ordinary people like Leonardo Talledos, an operations control engineer for Colombia's Bogota Metro Line 1, the significance of China-LAC cooperation today goes far beyond trade figures and project counts -- it shapes his career and supports his aspirations.

Built and operated by Chinese companies, Bogota Metro Line 1 is Colombia's largest infrastructure project to date. Once operational in 2028, it will cut travel time between terminal stations from nearly three hours to just 27 minutes.

In 2023, Talledos traveled to Xi'an, capital of northwest China's Shaanxi Province, for a year-long training program in metro operations, where he witnessed the rapid development of China's urban transit systems. Inspired by the experience, he returned to Colombia to help compile training materials and operational guidelines for the metro line.

"From the moment we were hired, we were told that being part of this project was being part of Bogota's history, because it was the beginning, the first line of many lines to come in the future," said Talledos.

GREATER SOLIDARITY, BIGGER VOICE

As part of the Year of the Snake celebrations, Brazilian soprano Marilia Vargas gave a moving performance of the Chinese song "I Love You, China" at Rio de Janeiro's Municipal Theater. Dressed in a flowing red gown, her voice echoed powerfully throughout the hall.

Vargas, who has learned many Chinese songs in recent years, said her bond with China has deepened alongside the growth of the China-CELAC Forum. "Since the forum's foundation, many more opportunities for cultural exchange between LAC countries and China have opened up."

She told Xinhua that in the future, she will continue to "explore more Chinese musical treasures" and remain dedicated to advancing cultural exchanges between China and Brazil as well as between China and other LAC countries.

Over the past decade, cultural exchanges under the China-CELAC Forum have flourished. Joint archaeological projects have yielded substantial results, the number of exchange students has steadily increased, and interest in the Chinese language continues to surge across LAC countries.

"Mutual respect, diversity, knowledge and understanding" were the words used by Rogelio Rivero, Mexican archaeologist and director of the Archaeological Zone of Teotihuacan, to describe his experience in the cultural exchanges and dialogues held in China.

Rivero believes that LAC countries, by strengthening cultural exchanges with China and other Global South countries, will effectively contribute to breaking with "Western-centrism" and balancing unilateral narratives at the global level.

Despite differences in civilizations and cultures, independence and self-determination remain a shared and defining spirit of the Global South, said Ninfa Montano, president of the China-Mexico Cultural Development Foundation.

"The China-CELAC Forum unites the strength of the Global South, promoting unity and cooperation among many developing countries, and will contribute to establishing a more just and equitable global governance system," Montano said.

Montano's view was echoed by many analysts, who see the ministerial meeting as a chance to deepen cooperation, address global challenges and reinforce South-South solidarity.

The cooperation between China and LAC countries has set a model of mutually beneficial South-South collaboration, said Manuel Alberto Hidalgo, economist at Peru's National University of San Marcos.

By deepening bilateral partnership, both sides have effectively strengthened solidarity and cooperation in the Global South and made positive contributions to promoting the bloc's greater role in global governance, he said.

For Ingrid Chavez, executive director of the Colombian-Chinese Chamber of Investment and Commerce, the cooperation helps build up "a common voice as a bloc," empowering LAC countries to negotiate more effectively on the global stage.

It helps LAC countries "establish interregional, multilateral relations and somewhat change the power dynamics that have existed until now at the global level," she added.■