AN­GE­LO JE­DIDI­AH

an­ge­lo.je­didi­ah@guardian.co.tt

The Peo­ple’s Re­pub­lic of Chi­na has as­sured Caribbean coun­tries that there is no hid­den agen­da in seek­ing part­ner­ships with re­gion­al coun­tries, promis­ing mu­tu­al ben­e­fit and re­spect.

Speak­ing at a press con­fer­ence in Bei­jing on Fri­day, at­tend­ed by Caribbean and Latin Amer­i­can jour­nal­ists, Chi­nese For­eign Min­is­ter Wang Yi shared that there are no geopo­lit­i­cal cal­cu­la­tions in its co­op­er­a­tion with Latin Amer­i­can and Caribbean (LAC) coun­tries.

This mes­sage comes months ahead of the up­com­ing fourth Com­mu­ni­ty of Latin Amer­i­can and Caribbean (CELAC)-Chi­na Min­is­te­r­i­al Fo­rum.

Wang Yi told jour­nal­ists that Chi­na re­mains ded­i­cat­ed to en­sure fair­ness and views the re­gion as equal part­ners, re­fut­ing any claims of at­tempt­ing to con­trol any coun­try or re­gion.

“What peo­ple in LAC coun­tries want is to build their own home, not to be­come some­one’s back­yard; what they as­pire to is in­de­pen­dence and self-de­ci­sion, not the Mon­roe Doc­trine,” the min­is­ter said.

He added that he be­lieves the co­op­er­a­tion be­tween Chi­na and LAC coun­tries has gained wide­spread sup­port due to Chi­na’s re­spect for the re­gion’s peo­ple and its com­mit­ment to ad­dress­ing the needs of these coun­tries as they strive to mod­ernise.

“Un­der the guid­ance of Pres­i­dent Xi Jin­ping and the lead­ers of LAC coun­tries, and boost­ed by the Chi­na-CELAC Fo­rum, we have pro­duced fruit­ful out­comes in build­ing the Chi­na-LAC com­mu­ni­ty with a shared fu­ture and de­liv­ered ben­e­fits to all our peo­ple.”

Chi­na will host this year’s Chi­na-CELAC Min­is­te­r­i­al Meet­ing in the first half of 2025. For­eign Af­fairs Min­is­ter Dr. Amery Browne at­tend­ed the 3rd CELAC-Chi­na Min­is­te­r­i­al Fo­rum in 2021.