Bolivia, Chile agree to promote trade, tourism

Chilean and Bolivian leaders Friday in Brasilia agreed to sign a pact within 30 days to promote bilateral trade and scrap passport requirement for tourists mutually.

Chilean President Ricardo Lagos and his Bolivian counterpart Eduardo Rodriguez reached the agreement here on the sideline of the first summit of the South American Community of Nations (CSN).

They said the signing of the accord will fully liberalize exports from Bolivia to Chile.

The two leaders also agreed to remove passport requirement for the tourists starting from Saturday. The authorization of traveling without passport would last for 90 days.

On their bilateral ties, Rodriguez said, "the relations (between the two countries) are very well and moving on."

On his part, Lagos told reporters,"we've advanced on different issues."

Chile and Bolivia have no diplomatic relations since 1978. Bolivia has demanded that Chile return a sea access taken away in the War of the Pacific (1879-1884).

Source: Xinhua