Chinese president to visit Latin America

President Xi Jinping will visit Latin America this year, while China and Latin American countries are making efforts to launch a cooperation forum, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said in Beijing on Saturday.

Xi will attend the BRICS Leaders Meeting in Brazil and visit some Latin American countries, Wang told a press conference on the sidelines of the annual meeting of the National People's Congress, China's top legislature.

BRICS is an economic bloc representing five of the world's leading emerging economies, namely Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

Recently the summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) adopted a special statement, supporting the establishment of a China-CELAC forum.

"In 2014, we'll work hard to have this forum formally launched and hold its first ministerial conference," Wang said.

"This will be an important breakthrough in the relations between China and Latin America and Caribbean," he said.

The CELAC, established in December 2011, comprises the 33 countries of the western hemisphere with the exception of the United States and Canada. Cuba took the bloc's rotating presidency in January 2013.

"I'm full of expectations about China-Latin America relations this year, and I'm sure many football fans in China are full of expectations about this year's Brazil FIFA World Cup," Wang said.

The World Cup will be staged in 12 Brazilian cities from June 12 to July 13.

He said, "the best line to describe China's relationship with Latin America and Caribbean is a line 'bosom friends from afar bring a distant land near'. This year we face an important opportunity for taking this relationship to the next level."

(Updated)