COSTA RICA NEWS – Costa Rica President Luis Guillermo Solís is in China to attend the first ministerial meeting of the China-CELAC forum in Beijing, along with two foreign minister from the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC).
Chinese President XI Jinping will attend the opening ceremony of the meeting on Jan.8, along with Costa Rica President Luis Guillermo Solis, Ecuador President Rafael Correa Delgado, Bahamas Prime Minister Perry Christie and Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro Moros will also be present at the ceremony.
Costa Rica currently holds the CELAC pro-tempore presidency, passing to Ecuador at the end of the month. The two countries, together with Cuba and Bahamas, make up the CELAC Quartet.
Expected to attend the event are also representatives of the UN economic commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, Bank of America and Development Bank of Latin America, accordding to Zhu Qingqiao, director-general for the Department of Latin America and Caribbean Affairs at the Chinese Foreign Ministry.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and his Costa Rican counterpart, Manuel Gonzalez Sanz, will co-chair the meeting.
Thought out on February 23, 2010, at the Rio Group–Caribbean Community Unity Summit, and created on December 3, in Caracas, Venezuela, CELAC is a block of 33 countries speaking five different languages;
– 18 Spanish-speaking countries (56% of the area, 63% of the population):
- Argentina
- Bolivia
- Chile
- Colombia
- Costa Rica
- Cuba
- Dominican Republic
- Ecuador
- El Salvador
- Guatemala
- Honduras
- Mexico
- Nicaragua
- Panama
- Paraguay
- Peru
- Uruguay
- Venezuela
– One Portuguese-speaking country Brazil, (42% of the area, 34% of the population)
– One French-speaking country, Haiti (0.1% of the area, 1.6% of the population)
– Twelve English-speaking countries (1.3% of the area, 1.1% of the population):
- Antigua and Barbuda
- Bahamas
- Barbados
- Belize
- Dominica
- Grenada
- Guyana
- Jamaica
- Saint Lucia
- Saint Kitts and Nevis
- Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
- Trinidad and Tobago
– One Dutch-speaking country, Suriname (0.8% of the area, 0.1% of the population)
During Xi’s visit to Latin America in July 2014, he and CELAC leaders announced the establishment of the cooperation forum and agreed to hold its first ministerial at an early date.
