The meeting of leaders of China and Latin American and Caribbean states was held in Brasilia days ago, at which a joint statement was issued, formally announcing the establishment of the China-CELAC Forum and the convening of the forum's first ministerial meeting in Beijing.

One is the world's largest developing country, and the other is one of the world's emerging regions with the greatest development potential. From "acquaintance" to "mutual trust," from "handshake" to "embrace," from arduous journeys to direct flights, and from scattered goods transactions to all-round cooperation, this leapfrog development of bilateral relations seems incredible, yet it is also entirely reasonable.

Wu Hongying, director and research fellow of the Institute of Latin American Studies at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, said that the establishment of the China-CELAC Forum reflects the consensus reached between China and Latin America and the Caribbean, is a very crucial step toward achieving overall China-Latin America cooperation, and will build a new platform and inject new vitality into the future development of China-Latin America relations.

The establishment of the China-CELAC Forum is not a one-sided wish but a meeting of minds.

From Cuba's establishment of diplomatic relations with China in 1960 to the accelerated development of China-Latin America relations in recent more than a decade, bilateral relations with major Latin American and Caribbean countries have always been the core of China's policy toward Latin America, reflecting a diplomatic approach that proceeds from point to area and from the shallow to the deep, while bilateral cooperation has also shown a development trend that is all-round, wide-ranging and multi-tiered.

For Latin America, increasingly close economic and trade ties with China are becoming an ever more important part of its foreign strategy. Especially after the 2008 U.S. subprime mortgage crisis and the outbreak of the 2009 European debt crisis, strong exports to China were an important reason why many Latin American countries avoided the impact of the financial crisis and saw their economic growth rates rise rather than fall.

In the new historical period, both China and Latin America hope to elevate bilateral cooperation to a new height and achieve new breakthroughs. The sudden emergence of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) in December 2011 became an opportunity for establishing overall China-Latin America cooperation. The establishment of CELAC is of milestone significance to the integration process of Latin America and the Caribbean.

Wu Hongying believes that the establishment of CELAC is historic, as it has given China a counterpart with which to conduct dialogue at the level of overall cooperation with Latin America, and China-Latin America cooperation has therefore entered a new period.

In the view of Sun Hongbo, associate research fellow at the Institute of Latin American Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the establishment of the China-CELAC Forum shows that China and Latin America are more confident and more mature on the international stage and conforms to the major trend of globalization and multipolar development.

After more than a decade of development, China-Latin America relations are now in their best period in history.

In the bilateral field, China is the largest or second-largest trading partner of Latin America's eight major economies and has signed free trade agreements with Chile, Peru and Costa Rica. Cooperation between China and major Latin American countries in many fields such as energy, mining, agriculture, finance and infrastructure is flourishing, and people-to-people and cultural exchanges are also gradually advancing. At present, China has established 32 Confucius Institutes and 10 Confucius Classrooms in Latin American and Caribbean countries.

The establishment of the China-CELAC Forum will add the new dimension of overall cooperation to the existing bilateral and multilateral cooperation between China and Latin America, making the layout of China-Latin America strategic cooperation more three-dimensional and its levels more distinct.

Wu Hongying pointed out that after the establishment of the China-CELAC Forum, overall China-Latin America cooperation has begun to take shape. This will provide a platform for collective dialogue and collective exchange between China and Latin America and lay a solid foundation for future institutionalized development. China and Latin America should continue to expand people-to-people and cultural exchanges, enhance mutual understanding and awareness, leverage comparative advantages, strive to achieve win-win and multi-win outcomes, and jointly promote South-South cooperation and the democratization of international relations.

Regarding the relationship among bilateral, multilateral and overall cooperation, Wu Hongying believes that the core task for both China and Latin America at present is to build the new platform of overall cooperation well, with existing bilateral and multilateral cooperation as the support and basis. Once overall cooperation becomes institutionalized, it will inevitably play a driving role in deepening bilateral and multilateral cooperation.

Sun Hongbo pointed out that the future development of overall China-Latin America cooperation requires the joint efforts of both sides. He believes that the China-CELAC Forum is built on the basis of China and CELAC, a regional integration organization, and therefore how Latin America forms a unified consensus internally and how it balances different positions and different interest demands will become a key factor in the future direction of overall China-Latin America cooperation. In addition, China should propose some pragmatic and effective cooperation measures, upgrade existing cooperation models, improve the quality of cooperation, and achieve a qualitative change from "growth" to "development."