China eyes closer ties with Latin America, issues policy paper

Beijing, Nov 5 (Xinhua) China released its first policy paper on Latin America and the Caribbeans Wednesday ahead of President Hu Jintao's Latin American tour, eyeing closer ties with the region.

'The policy paper was formulated with an aim to further clarify the goals of China's policy in this region and outline guiding principles for future cooperation,' said Yang Wanming, director-general of the the Latin American and Caribbean affairs department of the foreign ministry.

To coincide with Hu's visits to Costa Rica, Cuba, Peru and Greece from Nov 16 to 26, the release of the policy paper was part of the preparation for Hu's Latin America visit, Yang said.

He said although a few countries in the region have still not established diplomatic ties with China, and maintain so-called official ties with Taiwan, China is willing to develop normal state-to-state relations with these countries.

China does not have any objection to the non-governmental economic and cultural exchanges conducted by the countries in the region with Taiwan, he added.

China shared common interests with the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean in tackling non-traditional security threats, he said.

Beijing established diplomatic relations with many Latin American countries in the 1960s and 1970s.

China released its first policy paper on the European Union in 2003 and issued 'China's African Policy' in 2006.