China, Colombia sign Belt and Road cooperation pact

BEIJING (Reuters) - China and Colombia person signed a associated practice program connected the Belt and Road Initiative, authorities media said connected Wednesday aft their leaders met successful Beijing.

Burgeoning commerce successful caller years has helped turn Beijing's power successful Latin America and the Caribbean, a portion of strategical value for the United States.

China is Colombia's 2nd largest trading spouse aft the United States, which it precocious displaced arsenic Colombia's largest root of imports.

China is acceptable to import much high-quality products from Colombia, backmost its firms successful investing and doing concern determination and articulation successful infrastructure construction, President Xi Jinping told counterpart Gustavo Petro, the Xinhua quality bureau said.

On Monday Petro said Colombia would articulation the Belt and Road Initiative launched by Xi successful 2013 to recreate the past Silk Road and physique China's commercialized and infrastructure links with the world.

More than 20 Latin American nations are among the much than 150 countries participating successful the programme, but successful February Panama said it was exiting from the pact, a determination China blamed connected unit from the United States.

Petro, who took implicit successful August 2022, made his archetypal travel to China arsenic president successful October 2023, upgrading to a strategical concern two-way ties archetypal established successful 1980.

(Reporting by Beijing Newsroom; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Clarence Fernandez)