BEIJING -- President Xi Jinping on Wednesday held a phone conversation with Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, announcing the decision to elevate China-Nicaragua ties to a strategic partnership.

Since the resumption of bilateral relations two years ago, the two sides, with a sense of urgency, have been promoting a leap-forward development of China-Nicaragua relations.

Embarking on a new starting point, China and Nicaragua are expected to further deepen bilateral cooperation and strengthen friendship between their peoples, which will inject impetus into the building of a China-Latin America community with a shared future and the common development of the world.

LEAP-FORWARD DEVELOPMENT

During Wednesday's talks, Xi said he is ready to work with Ortega to promote bilateral ties for fresh achievements, with the newly announced strategic partnership between the two countries as a new starting point, adding that he is willing to join the Nicaraguan leader in setting an example of solidarity, cooperation, mutual benefit and win-win results.

After the talks, the two sides issued a joint statement on the establishment of a strategic partnership between China and Nicaragua.

During the previous two years, the two countries have firmly supported each other on issues concerning each other's core interests and major concerns, and have comprehensively expanded and made positive progress in practical cooperation.

Nicaragua joined the Belt and Road Initiative and has been vocal about its support to China-proposed Global Development Initiative. China is now Nicaragua's second-largest trading partner and second-largest source of imports.

Chinese Ambassador to Nicaragua Chen Xi said that under the personal care, strategic planning and political guidance of the leaders of the two countries, China-Nicaragua relations have achieved a qualitative leap, which is in the common interests of the two countries and their people and is conducive to the common development and prosperity of the two countries.

According to Zhou Zhiwei, a researcher at the Institute of Latin America of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, over the past two years since the resumption of diplomatic relations between China and Nicaragua, the two countries have achieved a series of "more than expected results" in practical cooperation. Furthermore, the upgrading of bilateral relations signifies that the two countries' exchanges and cooperation in such fields as politics, economy and people-to-people exchanges have entered a more efficient and smooth stage of development.

Nicaraguan Minister of Development, Industry and Trade Jesus Bermudez is deeply impressed by China's innovations such as e-payment. He is looking forward to cooperating with China in the digital economy, saying that bilateral cooperation will be particularly beneficial to the development of small and medium-sized enterprises in Nicaragua.

COMMON PROSPERITY

The free trade agreement between China and Nicaragua, which will come into effect on Jan. 1 next year, is a landmark achievement of cooperation between the two countries, Xi said in his phone talks with Ortega, noting that both sides should take this opportunity to continuously boost the volume and raise the level of bilateral trade.

The Nicaraguan side sincerely appreciates China's valuable assistance in Nicaragua's economic development and improvement of people's livelihoods, Ortega said.

Nowadays, in Managua, the capital of Nicaragua, hundreds of comfortable and eco-friendly Chinese buses are running around to serve the local people. With the assistance of Chinese enterprises, hundreds of affordable housing units and their ancillary facilities are being built in the city to improve the living conditions of local people.

Reyna Rueda, mayor of Managua, told Xinhua that she has seen, from the changes in the city's appearance over the past two years, how the rapid development of Nicaragua-China practical cooperation has benefited the general public.

In a handicraft market in the center of Masaya, Nicaragua, dozens of merchants sell leather, feather paintings, wood products and other handicrafts. Two years ago, in an interview with Xinhua reporters, the mayor of Masaya, Janina Noguera, expressed two wishes -- to develop a sister-city in China and to enhance the exchange of experience and technology with China.

Now, both wishes have come true. In September, Masaya signed a letter of intent to establish a sister-city relationship with Nanjing, the capital of Jiangsu Province in China. The two cities plan to cooperate in a variety of fields.

Earlier this year, Noguera visited Kunming, the capital of Yunnan Province and other Chinese cities to learn the experience of how China's cultural industry has boosted economic development.

For the future, Noguera has a new wish -- to bring China's successful experience to Masaya as soon as possible for the benefit of the local people.

More and more Nicaraguan students are coming to China to study, among whom is Natalia Caldera. She told Xinhua that in the past year studying at Beijing Foreign Studies University, she and her Chinese classmates have deepened their understanding of each other's cultures, and seen relations between China and Nicaragua growing ever closer.

Caldera looks forward to contributing to expanding the bilateral cooperation in the fields of culture, education, youth, media and other areas. Besides, she would like to record more stories about China "to become a messenger of friendly exchanges between the two countries."

SHARED ASPIRATION

In his phone talks with Ortega on Wednesday, Xi said that China stands ready to strengthen solidarity and coordination with Nicaragua in international affairs, and work with Nicaragua to oppose hegemonism and power politics, promote the development of a more just and rational international order, and safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of developing countries.

Ignacio Martinez, an expert on international affairs at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, said that the upgrading of China-Nicaragua relations is another vivid example of the positive development of Latin America's relations with China.

Looking back at the year 2023, the head-of-state diplomacy has guided China-Latin America relations for stable progress. Xi, by holding meetings and sending messages to leaders of Latin American countries, has engaged in close interactions with them on multilateral platforms such as BRICS and APEC.

Multiple Latin American leaders, including Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and Colombian President Gustavo Petro, visited China this year, lifting their relations with China to new levels. During Honduran President Xiomara Castro's visit to China in June, the two countries signed a memorandum of understanding on the Belt and Road cooperation, only a few months after the establishment of their diplomatic ties in March.

Song Junying, director of the Department for Latin American and Caribbean Studies of China Institute of International Studies, said that under the guidance of the head-of-state diplomacy, China-Latin America relations have been developing rapidly and practical cooperation has continued to deepen.

China and Latin America, Song said, as partners of the Global South, have forged a consensus on multilateral agendas such as the reform of global governance and the tackling of climate change, which will help the Global South make an even stronger voice in the international arena.