Xi meets Venezuelan President Maduro in Beijing
China and Venezuela signed several bilateral cooperation documents focused on areas, including the economy, trade and tourism, broadcaster CCTV said on Wednesday. In promoting stronger ties between the two countries, President Xi Jinping signed the deals with Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro after a meeting in Beijing. Xi pointed out that the two countries are partners with shared development, state media reported, highlighting that both are "good friends with mutual trust". The president also noted that next year will be the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries. China and Venezuela also signed deals on science and technology, civil aviation, and aerospace. Maduro, for his part, said Venezuela is willing to closely communicate and cooperate with China within multilateral frameworks such as the Brics mechanism and the United Nations. Venezuela is actively courting membership of Brics, a group of major emerging economies – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – which recently favoured expansion and welcomed new members. (Reuters)