Sure enough, Beijing's emphasis on common interests and shared destiny is applauded by the world, including Latin American and Caribbean countries. President Luis Guillermo Solis Rivera of Costa Rica, who is the current chairman of CELAC, stated at the opening ceremony of the inaugural ministerial meeting that China's outreach to his region is helping to shorten the geographical distance between the two sides and that China's vision for a "Silk Road Economic Belt" and "21st Century Maritime Silk Road" is a boon to Latin American and Caribbean countries, as Beijing may be willing to consider funding the planned infrastructural projects linking countries in the Western Hemisphere.

Second, China's embrace of a global network of partners finds expression in its all-inclusive diplomacy. China desires a global partnership based on equality. In Beijing's view, countries – large and small, rich and poor – should respect each other's sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity as well as development path and values. China desires a peaceful global partnership. There will be no hypothetical enemy or intended target. It will not be colored by military considerations. It should handle inter-state relations in a cooperative and positive-sum spirit, not the opposite. The global partnership should also go beyond differences in social system and ideology and highlight common interests and endeavors.

In this case, despite the fact that China and the 33 Latin American and Caribbean countries all belong to the developing world, their cooperation is hampered by significant differences in terms of national condition and strength as well as development and governance model. If they are to act concurrently, complex coordination is required – and even so, no one can guarantee a positive outcome. With this in mind, it is nothing short of amazing that from the adoption of a special statement in support of the establishment of China-CELAC Forum at the second CELAC summit in early 2014 to the convocation of the inaugural ministerial meeting in January 2015, it has taken the two sides only a couple of years to agree on not only a framework for collective cooperation, but also specific actions to link and augment their strengths. This is, in large part, thanks to the desire of Latin American and Caribbean countries to enhance their profile through unity and to China's emphasis on progress, inclusion and pragmatism in its diplomatic activities.

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