CHINESE PRESIDENT ARRIVES IN COSTA RICA FOR STATE VISIT

San Jose, June 3 (Xinhua)- Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived here yesterday for a state visit to Costa Rica to promote cooperation between China and the Central American country.

Since China and Costa Rica established diplomatic ties in 2007, fruitful achievements have been made in their cooperation in various fields.

Last August, Costa Rican President Laura Chinchilla paid a state visit to China, which injected a new impetus to the comprehensive development of bilateral relations.

Xi, who flew into San Jose from Port of Spain after his state visit to Trinidad and Tobago, is currently on his first trip to Latin America after becoming the president in March. He will also visit Mexico.

"The purpose of the visit is to deepen the traditional friendship between China and Latin America and expand their mutually beneficial cooperation," said the Chinese president in a joint written interview with the media of Trinidad and Tobago, Costa Rica and Mexico ahead of his visits to the three countries.

"I am confident that the visit will give a strong boost to the China-Latin America comprehensive and cooperative partnership featuring equality, mutual benefit and common development," Xi said.

China and Latin America have expanded pragmatic cooperation in recent years, delivering tangible benefits to both peoples.

With two-way trade reaching 261.2 billion U.S. dollars in 2012, China has become the second largest trading partner of Latin America and the Caribbean, which witnessed the world's fastest growth of exports to China. By investing nearly 65 billion U.S. dollars in Latin America and the Caribbean in accumulative terms, China has helped create much-needed jobs in the region.

After his Latin American trip, Xi will travel to U.S. state of California for a summit meeting with his U.S. counterpart Barack Obama.

The China-U.S. summit will be the first of its kind since both nations completed their most recent leadership transitions.

Xi and Obama are expected to exchange views on domestic and foreign policies, as well as issues of pivotal importance and regional and international issues of common concern, Chinese officials said.

The summit would be conducive to strengthening strategic communication, increasing mutual trust, deepening bilateral cooperation and managing differences between Beijing and Washington, analysts said.

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