On October 28th to 29th, together with Chinese People's Institute of Foreign Affairs and China Foundation for International Studies, CIIS successfully held the 5th China-Latin America and the Caribbean Think Tanks Forum in Beijing. More th an 170 guests from China, Latin America and the Carribbean countries, including government officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, International Department of CPC Central Committee, National Development and Reform Commission, Ministry of Commerce, think tank scholars from 27 countries and international organizations and LAC diplomats in China, representatives from enterprises and media, have participated in this event.
The opening ceremony was chaired by Lan Lijun, President of China Foundation for International Studies. Zheng Zeguang, Vice Foreign Minister, Wang Chao, President of Chinese People's Institute of Foreign Affairs, and Frederick Audley Mitchell, Chairman of Progressive Liberal Party from Bahamas, respectively gave their opening remarks.
Vice Foreign Minister Zheng Zeguang addressing the opening ceremony
Zheng Zeguang conveyed State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi's warm welcome to the Chinese and foreign scholars attending the forum. He said, in recent years, China and Latin America have made substantial progress in bilateral relations, continuously deepened exchanges and cooperation in politics, economy, people-to-people and cultural engagement and other fields and maintained good communication and coordination on major issues including global governance, regional cooperation and climate change. The joint building of China-Latin America community with a shared future has been converted from vision into actions, constantly yielding fruitful results. In the next stage, the Chinese side stands ready to work with the Latin American side to strengthen exchanges at high level and across all levels, deepen mutual understanding and political mutual trust, promote high-quality construction of the Belt and Road Initiative between China and Latin America, and expand practical cooperation in such fields as trade, investment, infrastructure, scientific and technological innovation. Latin American and Caribbean countries are welcome to attend the 2nd China International Import Expo. Both sides need to expand people-to-people and cultural exchanges, constantly consolidate the foundation for social and public opinion for China-Latin America relations, strengthen coordination and communication on major international and regional issues, and jointly safeguard multilateralism with the United Nations (UN) a t its core and the multilateral trading system with the World Trade Organization (WTO) a t its core.
Vice Minister Zheng Zeguang stressed that as an important sub-forum under the framework of the China-Latin America Forum, the China-Latin America and the Caribbean T hink T ank F orum has made important contributions to promoting cooperation between China and Latin America in various fields. The theme of this forum --- Promoting High-Quality Belt and Road Cooperation: Toward a Connectivity Partnership Between China and Latin American and the Caribbean countries --- is highly in line with the current China-LAC development . It is hoped that this forum will pool wisdom, conduct in-depth research on China-Latin American relations in different dimensions, achieve more innovative results, better unite the efforts of all sectors, and promote China-Latin America comprehensive partnership to a higher level in the new era.
Ruan Zongze, Executive Vice President of CIIS, delivered a speech at the welcoming dinner. Firstly, he welcomed all guests for coming and said that under the political leadership of both sides, Sino-Latin American relations have entered into a critical upgrading period in the new era. At present, China's "Latin America fever" and Latin America's "China fever" are echoing one another, and the exchanges between two sides in various fields are increasingly getting closer. Faced with the unprecedented changes this century has never seen, the two sides share more and more common languages in promoting global governance, safeguarding multilateralism and exploring development paths suitable for their respective national conditions. The development of China-Latin America relations is ushering in an infinite bright future. Facing the new era, it is not without challenges. New topics and new tasks are rising, it is of great significance for all of us to come together and make suggestions for China-Latin American and the Caribbean cooperation. We look forward to your insights and contributions to the development of Latin American relations in the new era.
In this forum, 39 scholars, representatives from enterprises and media have delivered speeches on five sessions centering the themes:" Promoting High-Quality Belt and Road Cooperation: concept, practice and significance", " T oward a connectivity partnership: vision, goal and path ", " Joint Commitment to Innovation, Fostering New Growth Point in China-LAC Cooperation ", " Promoting Sustainable Development and Contributing to the Realization of UN's 2030 SDGs ", " Deepening Dialogues of China-LAC Civilizations, Strengthening People-to-People Ties " and engaged in heated discussions with other representatives.
Panel Discussions
Panel Discussions
Panel Discussions
Panel Discussions
Panel Discussions
China-Latin America and the Caribbean Think Tanks Forum aims to enhance the exchange of experience between think tanks of both sides and provide intellectual support for the development of China - LAC cooperation . It has become an important part of the overall cooperation between China and Latin America and the Caribbean. The first think tank forum was held in 2010.
CGTN in Spanish , People’s Daily , China News Service , Global Times , China Today , Beijing Daily , Social Sciences in China Press , Shenzhen TV and other media have covered this forum while having had interviews with many delegates.