Honduran President Xiomara Castro will begin a six-day state visit to China later this week, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said Wednesday, her first trip to Beijing since the Central American country switched its diplomatic recognition from Taipei in March.
Castro's visit from Friday at the invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping comes after Honduras' move left the number of countries that officially recognize the self-ruled democratic island at a record-low 13.
On Monday, China opened its embassy in the Honduran capital Tegucigalpa, with Yu Bo, its charge d'affaires, noting the two countries have accelerated cooperation in economic areas less than three months after the establishment of diplomatic relations, the official Xinhua News Agency said.
Honduran Foreign Minister Eduardo Reina said at an inauguration ceremony for the embassy that Honduras looks forward to jointly promoting cooperation on trade with China to improve infrastructure, according to Xinhua.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said at a press conference in Beijing on Wednesday that Xi and Castro will "hold a historic meeting and jointly chart and guide the future development of bilateral ties."
"China looks forward to working with Honduras to deepen mutual trust, expand cooperation, enhance friendship and promote the sustained and steady growth of bilateral relations through this important visit," he said.
Wang said Tuesday Beijing would facilitate the launch of the Honduran Embassy in China.
Communist-led China and Taiwan have been separately governed since they split in 1949 due to a civil war. Beijing regards the island as a renegade province to be unified with the mainland, by force if necessary.
The 13 states that still maintain diplomatic relations with Taipei are the Vatican, the Pacific islands of Tuvalu, Nauru, Palau and the Marshall Islands, the African country of Eswatini, as well as Guatemala, Paraguay, Haiti, Belize, Saint Lucia, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines in the Latin American and Caribbean regions.
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