CRI听力:China, Argentina Upgrade Ties

The deal was made during President Xi Jinping's ongoing state visit to the Latin American nation.

Noting that China and Argentina are both emerging-market economies at an important phase of development, President Xi said they should stick to the in-the-same-boat spirit and deepen cooperation so as to tackle challenges and achieve common development.

According to a Chinese ambassador to Argentina Yin Hengmin, China is Argentina's second largest trade partner, No. 1 destination of agro-product exports, and third largest source of investment, while Argentina is China's fifth largest trade partner in Latin America and third largest source of agro-product imports in the world.

President Xi said Sino-Argentine cooperation has made tremendous progress since the two countries established a strategic partnership 10 years ago.

And in order to promote the future development of bilateral ties, the two sides have decided to lift their relationship from a strategic partnership to a comprehensive strategic partnership.

"We will actively cooperate with investments in Argentina in areas such as gas, oil, agriculture and nuclear energy. President Kirchner emphasized agricultural cooperation, an area in which both countries are highly complementary. China has to optimise its agricultural structure to improve the nation's quality of life."

The Chinese president also made a multi-point proposal, saying the two sides should further deepen political mutual trust, support each other's independent choice of development path and maintain close contact and exchanges at different levels and in various fields.

He urged the two countries to learn from each other's governance experiences, facilitate personnel exchanges and carry out more cultural exchanges.

For her part, President Cristina said the two countries share similar stands on a number of major issues and bilateral ties have strategic and global significance.

She said the establishment of the comprehensive strategic partnership serves the fundamental interests of both countries and peoples, and is conducive to the democratization of international relations.

President Xi Jinping also took time to comment on the Malaysia Airlines passenger plane crash over Ukraine, calling for a "fair and objective" investigation into the incident.

Argentina is the second leg of Xi's four-nation Latin America tour, which will also take him to Venezuela and Cuba. He visited Brazil earlier in the trip, his second to the region since he took over the presidency in March 2013.

For CRI, I'm Yu Yang.