Among the 14 agreements covering a wide span of fields such as trade, investment, finance, tourism, education and judiciary, economic cooperation is surely a high priority and closer economic ties are regarded as the common concern of the two countries.
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During the meetings, strong steps were taken to expand the bilateral economic and financial relationship.
Cuba, the first country in Latin America to establish diplomatic ties with China, is the last stop of Li’s America tour, following his attendance in the 71st session of the UN General Assembly in NY and an official visit to Canada. The two leaders set a target of doubling trade by 2025. Li, who went to Montreal after visiting Ottawa, the Canadian capital, in which he arrived on Wednesday to fulfill a tight agenda, assrted that trade between the two countries should be redoubled during the next 10 years.
China is the second largest trading partner of the island, surpassed only by Venezuela, and previous year the two countries had an exchange which reached United States $1.6 billion.
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and Cuban President Raul Castro attend a signing ceremony for the cooperation agreements between China and Cuba, at the Palace of the Revolution in Havana on Saturday September 25, 2016. In addition, China is the main source of credit for Cuba. In comparison, China is the world’s most populous country with less than 10 percent of the world’s arable land, which spells the necessity of agricultural cooperation.
He later called for “a new golden decade” between Ottawa and Beijing.
Premier Li defended the death penalty as he stressed on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to sign a formal extradition treaty.
On the other side, Canada’s decision to apply for membership at the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank was applauded as one of the major achievements of Trudeau’s visit to China. “These efforts will promote further understanding between our countries and generate exciting new opportunities for Canadian businesses to help grow our middle class”. He also said his country is serious about strengthening the rule of law on intellectual property protection.
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Those in the economic sectors in Canada have hailed the bright prospects of Sino-Canada economic ties.
