May 12, 2025 – The fourth ministerial meeting of the China-Community of Latin American and Caribbean States Forum (China-CELAC Forum), will be held in Beijing tomorrow (Tuesday, 13th May, 2025). This year marks the 10th anniversary of the official launch of the Forum.
This Forum serves as a mechanism to foster cooperation among China, Latin America, and the Caribbean. The prior three ministerial meetings established a strong agenda focused on promoting dialogue, collaboration, and exchange in various areas of mutual interest. Since 2013, twenty-two Latin American and Caribbean Countries have signed Belt & Road Agreements, leading to significant Infrastructure development and economic transformation.
The China-CELAC Forum has led to the development of several Action Plans over the past decade, including the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which promotes sustainable development and cooperation. Areas of focus over time have included politics and security, infrastructure and transportation, trade, investment, and finance, agriculture, industry, science, and technology, as well as cooperation on environmental issues and cultural exchange.
Antigua and Barbuda’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Honourable E. P. Chet Greene, is currently in Beijing. He is expected to participate in bilateral discussions with China’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, His Excellency Wang Yi, leading up to the Forum.
While President Xi Jinping will attend the opening ceremony and address the forum, the meeting will be chaired by Foreign Minister Wang Yi. It is expected to be attended by foreign ministers or representatives from at least twenty-two CELAC countries, to include the incoming CELAC Colombia’s President, Gustavo Petro. Heads of relevant regional organizations, including the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), are also expected to participate.
Discussions at the Forum will encompass technological innovation, economic and trade investment, artificial intelligence, and Belt and Road cooperation. Chinese Foreign Affairs officials in Beijing have indicated that the meeting demonstrates a commitment to collaboratively addressing global challenges. Beijing also asserts that it is prepared to use the meeting as an opportunity to discuss development cooperation plans, promote global governance reform, and safeguard world peace and stability. A new action plan is anticipated to be issued, covering the period from 2025 to at least 2027, to guide and structure cooperation between China and CELAC.
China is likely to offer support for CELAC to transition from its informal multilateral mechanism, which lacks a permanent seat and the formal characteristics of an international body. Such formalisation would complement to other forums such as APEC, G20, and the BRICS.
The Forum is being held against the backdrop of the Trump Administration’s foreign policy stance towards the region, set against China’s foreign affairs philosophy of multilateralism and the notion of a “community with a shared future for mankind,” which stresses cooperation and mutual benefit in international relations.
In recent engagements with CELAC members, United States Secretary of State Mark Rubio questioned China’s support for the region through the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). As recently as early May 2025, during a meeting with select Caribbean Heads of State, which included Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda Gaston Browne, Secretary Rubio urged our partners to make responsible, transparent decisions when selecting vendors and contractors for critical infrastructure projects, (and) ensure their decisions do not leave them exposed (and) vulnerable to privacy and security risks and exploitation by malign actors like the Chinese Communist Party. The Heads of State were challenged to “bolster intelligence sharing and border security under the Caribbean Basin Security Initiative.” https://www.state.gov/releases/office-of-the-spokesperson/2025/05/secretary-rubios-meeting-with-eastern-caribbean-and-bahamas-heads-of-government/
Secretary of State Rubio also sowed dissonance within the regional fraternity of Cuba and Venezuela, both of which are in CELAC, at every opportunity.
The U.S. foreign policy considerations in its backyard limit the ability of Caribbean and Latin American nations to take any firm, united position on matters where China and the United States are at odds. In this context, it is unlikely that any significant commitment will be made in the next China-CELAC Forum. This fourth Ministerial China-CELAC Forum is expected to be tightly managed, with participants cautious not to appear aligned with either side.
CELAC comprises thirty-three countries: Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Grenada, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, the Dominican Republic, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, Uruguay, and Venezuela.