The Argentine president's visit will boost China's relationship with Argentina and the South American Common Market (SACM), said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue at a Tuesday press conference.

Argentine President Nestor Kirchner arrived in Beijing on June 27, starting his 6-day state visit to China at the invitation of Chinese President Hu Jintao.

Zhang said the two sides attach great importance to the visit. The Argentine delegation contains many high level officials and entrepreneurs. The two sides signed five agreements in culture, civil aviation, public health, agriculture and investment, and held a seminar on economic cooperation on June 28. China also granted Argentina the Approved Destination Status during the visit.

Statistics show that China is currently the fourth largest trade partner of Argentina. Bilateral trade reached 3.176 billion US dollars last year, up 122.9 percent year-on-year, and has grown rapidly in the first six months of 2004.

As his country holds the SACM rotating presidency, Kirchner also brought up the issue of cooperation with the first common market comprised only of developing countries, including Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay. During his visit, China and SACM member countries will hold the fifth dialogue, the first of which was held in 1997.

Both sides believe it will bring practical benefits to boost political, economic and cultural cooperation, Zhang said, adding that SACM as a new mechanism besides bilateral ties could serve to enrich cooperation contents.

Source: Xinhua