Vice Foreign Minister Zheng Zeguang (left) and the Chilean Ambassador to China Luis Schmidt Montes propose a toast at the event. Photo: YinYeping/GT

The celebrations of the National Day of Chile took place at the Chilean Embassy in China on Wednesday, drawing the participation of government officials, diplomats, entrepreneurs, and media groups. Vice Foreign Minister Zheng Zeguang attended the event. The speech was given by the Chilean Ambassador to China Luis Schmidt Montes, who reviewed the fruitful achievements in bilateral relations and speak highly of the Chilean Week, which is a regular promotional event for bilateral exchanges in business and trade. "China is the Number One trading partner of Chile, with the bilateral trade volume reaching $34 billion last year and this year the volume exceeded $43 billion," Schmidt said. "The APEC Chile 2019 will be held in Chile in November and President Xi Jinping has confirmed his participation in the meetings. Xi will pay a state visit to Chile during that time and several agreements will be signed to further deepen the strong bilateral friendship." In Zheng's speech, he talked about the fruitful relations between the two sides and expressed his expectation for the future ties. "A bosom friend afar brings a distant land near. Although our two countries are geographically far apart, the friendly exchanges between our peoples date back to old times. In the 1950s, the famous Chilean poet Pablo Neruda and Chilean painter Jose Venturelli forged an inseparable bond with China," Zheng said. "In 1970, China and Chile established diplomatic relations, making Chile the first South American country to establish diplomatic relations with China. Since the establishment of diplomatic ties over 40 years ago, the relations between our two great countries have developed in a sound and fast way and achieved many firsts. In recent years, under the strategic guidance of the leaders of the two countries, China-Chile relations have entered a new stage of development. In April this year, President Piñera came to China to attend the 2nd Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation and President Xi and President Piñera will have important exchanges this year." For ten years in a row, China has been Chile's largest trading partner, largest export destination and largest source of imports, with the upgrading of China-Chile free-trade agreement and the progress of joint Belt and Road construction, the practical cooperation between the two sides in various fields will be further expanded, Zheng said.