Liu said, China and Uruguay, despite our geographical distance, are sincere friends and cooperative partners. This year marks the 35th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Uruguay, and both sides have maintained close exchanges at all levels, with positive progress in cooperation such as the Belt and Road Initiative. Currently, the CPC is uniting and leading the Chinese people in deepening Chinese modernization while adhering to opening-up and multilateralism. China is willing to work together with Uruguay as fellow travelers on the path to modernization, so as to better benefit the two peoples.

Liu also noted that the CPC maintains friendly relations with Uruguay's major political parties, which has effectively promoted the development of bilateral relations. Inter-party exchanges between China and Uruguay have also actively promoted friendly exchanges between the Chinese side and political parties in Latin America. The CPC is willing to strengthen exchanges with Uruguayan political parties, enhance people-to-people and cultural exchanges, and jointly implement the Global Development Initiative, the Global Civilization Initiative, and the Global Security Initiative proposed by General Secretary Xi Jinping to promote higher-level development of China-Uruguay relations. The Chinese side is also willing to work with countries in the Southern Common Market (Mercosur) to strengthen cooperation and achieve more results in China-Latin America cooperation.

Bustillo said, Uruguay and China have a long-standing friendship and fruitful economic and trade cooperation, and expressed gratitude to the Chinese side for its important support in Uruguay's fight against the pandemic. The long-standing friendly exchanges between the political parties of Uruguay and China have played an important role in promoting bilateral cooperation. The Uruguayan side highly admires China's great achievements in modernization and is willing to take the 35th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries as an opportunity to further strengthen cooperation in various fields such as economy, trade, culture, and sports, and to promote friendship between the two peoples. The Uruguayan side advocates free trade, and as the first Mercosur country to join the Belt and Road Initiative, it values strengthening bilateral and multilateral trade cooperation with the Chinese side and is willing to promote cooperation between Mercosur and China. Uruguay and China share common stance on many international issues, firmly uphold multilateralism, and maintain world peace and stability.

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