Visiting senior legislator Cheng Siwei on Tuesday praised the friendly relations between China and Cuba in a lecture at the University of Havana.

 

Cheng, vice chairman of the Standing Committee of China's National People's Congress (NPC), also highlighted China's swift development to 300 students and teachers at the university.

 

He said that "frequent reciprocal visits by senior leaders from the two nations have increased political confidence, swift bilateral commerce and economic cooperation."

 

Cheng, who is also president of the China-Latin America Friendship Association, said that both nations harbor hopes for extending the friendly bilateral ties, and added that the two socialist nations had jointly faced the historic challenge of industrialization.

 

The Cuba-China relations have developed most swiftly since the mid-1990s after the two countries first established diplomatic relations in 1960.

 

During his lecture, Cheng noted that the total Chinese trade volume was more than US$1.4 trillion in 2006, which includes US$762 billion in exports and US$660 billion in imports.

 

China has become the world's third largest trading nation, after the US and Germany, said Cheng.

 

Other attendees included: Ricardo Cabrisas, Cuba's Interior Minister; Ruben Zardoya, the University's chancellor; and Zhao Rongxian, China's Ambassador to Cuba.

 

China currently has diplomatic relations with 21 Latin American and Caribbean nations.

 

Cuba is the second leg of Cheng's travel to Latin America, which has already taken him to Jamaica. He is headed for Venezuela on Wednesday.

 

(Xinhua News Agency January 10, 2007)