On the 9th, Cuban Foreign Minister Rodríguez concluded a five-day visit to China. In addition to the Cuban foreign minister, over the past week, Brazil's vice president and Venezuela's foreign minister also visited China successively. What signal does the intensive visit to China by leaders and foreign ministers of Latin American and Caribbean countries send? Why can China-Latin America exchanges at various levels span thousands of miles and keep heating up?

　　Political mutual trust has become the cornerstone for China and Latin America to expand cooperation in various fields

Within a week, Brazil's vice president, Venezuela's foreign minister, and Cuba's foreign minister visited China intensively, enhancing mutual trust, promoting cooperation, and sending a firm signal of strengthening friendship with China.

Brazilian Vice President Alckmin said that Brazil is willing to take the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries as a new starting point to elevate bilateral relations to a new height.

Venezuelan Foreign Minister Gil said that Venezuela-China relations have entered the best period in history. Venezuela will continue to be China's most trustworthy friend.

Cuban Foreign Minister Rodríguez said that Cuba is willing to work with China to jointly advance the building of a Cuba-China community with a shared future and learn from China's successful experience.

Just over half of 2024 has passed, and leaders or foreign ministers from as many as nine Latin American and Caribbean countries have already visited China successively. The frequent high-level exchanges between China and Latin America demonstrate the warmth and high level of bilateral relations. Through analysis of relevant press releases, we found that "development," "cooperation," "partner," "mutual trust," "community with a shared future," and other keywords appear frequently.

At present, achieving independent development, especially more sustainable and inclusive economic growth and modernization, has become an important goal for Latin America's development. Why do Latin American and Caribbean countries regard China, thousands of miles away, as a partner on their development path? Cuban Foreign Minister Rodríguez, who visited China, gave his answer in an interview with the "Lanting Observer" reporter: "China has always been an indispensable, selfless friend that supports us. We identify with China's vision based on sovereign equality, multilateralism, the pursuit of peace, and the promotion of common interests, and have established a model of mutual benefit that serves as an example for relations between countries. We closely follow and actively participate in China's great initiatives, and close friendship has already been established between our two peoples."

Since 2014, China and Latin America have jointly built a China-Latin America community with a shared future, and continuously deepening political mutual trust has become the cornerstone for the two sides to expand cooperation in various fields.

China's attractiveness continues to rise. In recent years, Panama, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras, and others have successively established or restored diplomatic relations with China. Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Peru, Ecuador, Uruguay, and Nicaragua have become comprehensive strategic partners with China. Venezuela and China have upgraded their relations to an all-weather strategic partnership.

Venezuelan Foreign Minister Gil said in an interview with "Lanting Observer" that Venezuela is the country in Latin America and the Caribbean that has an all-weather strategic partnership with China. At present, the two countries have carried out active cooperation in energy, agriculture, culture, sports, aerospace, science and technology, and other fields. Speaking of the continuous expansion of trade between Venezuela and China, Gil said frankly that this is still not enough. Venezuela is also making continuous efforts to enhance commercial cooperation and strive to conduct trade in local currencies. Venezuela and China share a common future, a future full of hope and mutual benefit for the peoples of both countries.

　　Win-win cooperation is the source of vitality for the continuous development of China-Latin America relations

Over the past more than 20 years, China-Latin America trade has grown more than thirtyfold. In 2023, China-Latin America trade volume exceeded 489 billion US dollars. In recent years, in the infrastructure sector, which once constrained the development of Latin American countries, China-Latin America cooperation has continuously made major breakthroughs, helping Latin American countries achieve industrialization and reindustrialization.

Not long ago, the first "China-Latin America and Caribbean Countries Space Cooperation Forum" was successfully held in Wuhan, Hubei. From aerospace to the digital economy, clean energy, and artificial intelligence, one after another new driving force is pushing the two sides' cooperation to deepen continuously.

Song Junying, director of the Institute of Latin American and Caribbean Studies at the China Institute of International Studies, told "Lanting Observer" that China and many Latin American and Caribbean countries are developing countries. China-Latin America cooperation is essentially South-South cooperation. Especially against the current backdrop of the rise of the "Global South," Global South countries should strengthen solidarity and cooperation. China-Latin America cooperation reflects this aspect and has also set a good example for South-South cooperation. The two sides can engage in exchanges and mutual learning within the frameworks of Chinese-style modernization and Latin American-style modernization to promote common development of both sides.

Although the United States, which regards Latin America as its "backyard," frequently makes irresponsible remarks and smears and attacks China-Latin America cooperation, Latin American and Caribbean countries have still made decisions independently and continuously raised the "heat" of China-Latin America cooperation.

Behind the strong resilience of China-Latin America relations is the power demonstrated by the concepts of equality, mutual benefit, innovation, openness, and benefiting the people. With the expansion of cooperation fields and the improvement of cooperation mechanisms, China and Latin America are closely joining hands on the path to modernization and development, bringing new vitality to global economic development and South-South cooperation.