Xi heads to Latin America on second tour

CHINA: Chinese President Xi Jinping heads Friday to Latin America and the Caribbean, as he looks to keep on building links with the kind of emerging economies Beijing has cultivated in its rise to global influence. Xi's visit to Trinidad and Tobago, Costa Rica and Mexico follows his first foreign trip to Russia and three countries in Africa -- Tanzania, South Africa and the Republic of Congo -- shortly after taking office in March.

Beijing has embarked on a diplomatic drive since completing its once-in-a-decade power handover, with Xi's number two Premier Li Keqiang also visiting India, Pakistan, Switzerland and Germany.

After Mexico, Xi travels to the United States for his first summit with President Barack Obama on June 7-8 in California.

China has in recent years aggressively pushed trade and investment ties with the developing world, particularly Africa and Latin America, to secure raw materials to fuel its economic growth and wield greater geopolitical influence in relation to the United States.

AFP