Li Keqiang Meets with President Michelle Bachelet Jeria of Chile, Stressing to Promote China-Chile and China-Latin America Mutually Beneficial and Win-win Cooperation

In the morning of November 10, 2014, Premier Li Keqiang met with President Michelle Bachelet Jeria of Chile at the Great Hall of the People.

Li Keqiang said that although far apart in geography, China and Chile have always treated each other sincerely and the bilateral relations have been standing at the forefront of the relations between China and Latin American countries. President Xi Jinping held bilateral meeting with you in Brasilia this July, and reached important consensus. Chile is the first Latin American state that signed the free trade agreement (FTA) with China. Both sides should earnestly construct the bilateral free trade area (FTA), expand the exemplary and radiation effect and enlarge the "free trade dividend", so as to forge the free trade cooperation between the two countries into a model for the liberalization and facilitation for the investment and trade in the developing countries.

Li Keqiang noted that China is willing to actively participate in the construction projects in Chile covering railways, ports, hydroelectricity, telecommunications and other fields, take part in connectivity construction in South America, push forward the integration and common development in the region, scale up the trade of agricultural products, enrich the "vegetable basket" (non-staple food supply) of the two peoples, intensify cooperation in finance, and actively discuss on the development of currency swap and local currency clearing. It is hoped that the Chilean side will approve China-funded banks to establish branches in Chile at an early date.

Li Keqiang stressed that China attaches importance to developing its relations with the Latin American nations and is willing to join hands with all the Latin American states including Chile to promote the overall cooperation between China and Latin America and ensure the ministerial meeting of the China-CELAC (Community of Latin American and Caribbean States) Forum to be held in Beijing next year a success, so as to push the China-Latin America relations for new development on the current basis.

Michelle Bachelet Jeria expressed that Chile-China relations have always enjoyed a sound development. Chile attaches great importance to its relations with China and stands ready to enhance high-level exchanges and friendly exchanges at various levels with China, give the dialogue and cooperation mechanisms such as the standing committee between the two governments and the Chile-China free trade area into full play, expand mutually beneficial cooperation and push the Chile-China relations and Latin America-China relations for greater development.