China, Peru hail growth of bilateral ties as Xi visits

Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Peruvian counterpart, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, on Monday agreed to promote better and faster development of the two countries’ comprehensive strategic partnership.

Xi’s official visit extended the welcome he received at the Asia- Pacific Economic Cooperation summit that Peru hosted through Sunday.

Xi told Kuczynski that he hopes the visit will deepen the two countries’ traditional friendship, promote all- round dialogue and cooperation, and boost the China- Peru comprehensive strategic partnership, so as to bring more benefits to the two peoples.

“Peru was the first Latin American country to sign a comprehensive free trade agreement with China. It’s leading the region on cooperation with China,” Xi said in a speech before Peru’s Congress.

The coming five years are a significant time for national development of both countries, the Chinese president said, urging the two sides to weigh toplevel design and overall planning for bilateral ties, run their cooperation mechanisms well, fully implement their joint action plan for cooperation in 2016- 21, and strengthen synergy of development strategies so as to obtain real results.

Hailing the sustained growth of bilateral relations, Kuczynski said Peru is looking forward to further enhancing ties with China since both share similar historical experiences, same aspiration for national development, and huge potential for cooperation in the economic and cultural fields.

Calling on both countries to upgrade their free trade agreement signed in 2009 in a bid to inject new vitality into twoway trade, Xi said the Chinese government will continue to encourage capable enterprises to invest in Latin America.

In addition, Xi advised both sides to constantly expand exchanges in culture, education, science and technology, healthcare, sports, media, colleges and universities, think tank and other areas.