MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

China's foreign minister on a round of Latin America to prepare president Xi's visit

President Xi is scheduled to attend the BRICS summit in Brazil next July

China's Foreign minister Wang Yi will be travelling to Cuba, Venezuela, Argentina and Brazil from 18 to 27 April. The round comes two months ahead of Chinese president Xi-Jinping visit to Brazil for the BRICS summit next July in the northeastern city of Fortaleza. BRICS stands for Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

 Following the summit Xi will meet in Brazil four heads of state from the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, Celac, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador and a fourth representative yet to be named, plus Brazil's Dilma Rousseff.

In effect last week a Celac delegation travelled to Beijing to prepare with Minister Wang Yi and Vice-president Li Yuanchao the multilateral meetings scheduled for July.

President Xi could include more countries in his Latin-American itinerary but it has not yet been decided. This will be Xi second visit to the continent since he took office a year ago. In June 2013 he traveled to Costa Rica and Mexico.

Since the new authorities took office in Beijing they have had special consideration for Latin America, a region economically crucial for commodities hungry China. A region which is fighting for a place in the global stage and which Beijing believes bilateral trade is still far from its full potential.

President Xi has already met with several Latin American leaders among which Mexico's Enrique Peña Nieto, Peru's Ollanta Humala; Uruguay's Jose Mujica; Costa Rica's Laura Chinchilla and only recently hosted Bolivian president Evo Morales in Beijing.