At the invitation of Peruvian President Dina Boluarte, President Xi Jinping recently paid a state visit to Peru. The two heads of state held talks at the Presidential Palace in Lima and had in-depth exchanges of views on bilateral relations and issues of common concern, reaching broad consensus. People from all walks of life in Peru believe that President Xi Jinping's visit has further consolidated the political mutual trust between the two countries, promoted the upgrading of bilateral cooperation in quality, achieved fruitful results, and opened a brand-new chapter in the comprehensive strategic partnership between the two countries.

During this visit, President Xi Jinping and President Dina Boluarte jointly attended the opening ceremony of the Port of Chancay via video link at the Presidential Palace in Lima, which attracted high attention from the international media. The mainstream Peruvian newspaper "El Peruano" published an editorial saying: "As a result of the comprehensive strategic partnership between Peru and China, the opening of this super-large infrastructure provides a unique opportunity to promote Peru to become a commercial gateway between South America and Asia, and will also serve as a catalyst for economic development, enhancing the influence and competitiveness of Peruvian products in the Asian market."

President Dina Boluarte reposted the Spanish-language short video about the opening of the Port of Chancay produced by Xinhua News Agency on social media and said at a press conference: "The official opening of the Port of Chancay is of milestone significance for Peru to enhance its maritime connectivity and its capacity to radiate towards the Asia-Pacific region."

"For Peru, the opening of the Port of Chancay means the beginning of a different era," said Daniel Maurate, Peru's Minister of Labor and Employment Promotion, in an interview with Xinhua News Agency reporters. As a key project jointly built by Peru and China under the Belt and Road Initiative, the Port of Chancay will greatly promote Peru's economic growth, help Peru alleviate the unemployment problem, and assist more Peruvians in getting out of absolute poverty.

After the opening of the Port of Chancay, the first batch of Peruvian goods set off from here for Asia this week. "Our high-quality blueberries will be shipped to Shanghai through the Port of Chancay, carrying the hard work of our people and the blessings of our land," said the Peruvian agricultural products company Cerro Prieto on social media recently. "We are proud that we can continue to contribute to the field of international trade."

The Port of Chancay is a microcosm of the continuous deepening of practical cooperation between China and Peru. During President Xi Jinping's visit, the two countries issued a joint statement, announcing that China and Peru will deepen their cooperative relations in strategic fields such as infrastructure, energy, and mining, and incorporate projects in emerging fields such as circular economy, sustainable agriculture, industrial and supply chains, digital economy investment, and green development into bilateral cooperation.

Jesús Salazar, director of the Peruvian Institute for Sustainable Industrial Development, pointed out that China's investments in Peru's infrastructure, energy, mining, and agricultural fields have already reached a certain scale, contributing to job creation and economic development in Peru. This time, the two sides' incorporation of circular economy, green development, etc. into bilateral cooperation will promote the transformation of Peru's economic development mode and drive the simultaneous progress of sustainable development and environmental protection in Peru's industrial field.

"President Xi Jinping's state visit to Peru is of historic significance for the cooperation between the two countries. China has always emphasized win-win results, which makes people full of expectations for the future cooperation between the two countries," said Félix Bas, director of the Andean News Agency of Peru. "The further cooperation between Peru and China in emerging fields such as electric vehicles will have a positive impact on Peru's technological innovation and sustainable development."

During President Xi Jinping's visit to Peru, the two heads of state jointly witnessed the signing of the cooperation plan on jointly building the Belt and Road Initiative and the protocol on upgrading the China-Peru Free Trade Agreement. The two sides issued a joint statement on deepening the comprehensive strategic partnership.

"Since the establishment of the comprehensive strategic partnership in 2013, exchanges and cooperation between Peru and China have been continuously deepening, and bilateral mutual trust has been continuously strengthened," said Enrique Cornejo, vice dean of the Graduate School of the National University of San Marcos in Peru and former minister of transport and communications, to reporters. "During President Xi Jinping's visit, the two sides signed a series of cooperation documents, including the protocol on upgrading the China-Peru Free Trade Agreement, marking that the comprehensive strategic partnership between the two countries has reached a new level."

"The signing of the protocol on upgrading the China-Peru Free Trade Agreement is a major achievement of President Xi Jinping's visit," said Ángel Manuel Manero, Peru's minister of agricultural development and irrigation. Besides being able to export more characteristic agricultural products to China, Peru will have more possibilities to cooperate with China in the agricultural field in the future. It is believed that investments and technologies from China will promote the improvement of Peru's crop germplasm, drive the development of fields such as animal feed, and stimulate the potential of Peru's agricultural production, bringing a "huge agricultural technological transformation" to Peru.

Ursula decilú León Cumpen, Peru's minister of foreign trade and tourism, pointed out that the protocol on upgrading the China-Peru Free Trade Agreement has further improved seven original agreement chapters and added five new chapters. The newly added e-commerce chapter will facilitate Peruvian enterprises' exports to China, while the environment and trade chapter highlights the two sides' attention to the sustainability of the environment and resources. "The signing of the protocol on upgrading the China-Peru Free Trade Agreement will facilitate the operation of foreign trade enterprises of the two countries and further deepen the economic and trade cooperation between the two sides. It also shows the will and confidence of the two countries to continue to deepen bilateral relations and adapt them to the new era. Peru is excited about this."

In the view of Carlos Aquino, director of the Asia Studies Center of the National University of San Marcos in Peru, the upgrading of the China-Peru Free Trade Agreement conforms to the development processes of the two countries and the actual needs of current international trade. The newly incorporated e-commerce chapter reflects the importance of e-commerce in international trade. This upgrade has also improved chapters such as service trade and intellectual property rights, indicating that these fields will become new growth points for trade between the two countries. "We will see Peru expand its exports of fresh and frozen fruits to China, which shows that Peru's status as an international supplier in the field of fruits and their products has been further recognized."

Both China and Peru are countries with ancient civilizations. Strengthening cultural and people-to-people exchanges and cooperation between the two countries is one of the important achievements of President Xi Jinping's visit. The joint statement issued by the two countries announced that the two sides reiterated their willingness to promote exchanges and visits among cultural institutions, art troupes, and artists of the two countries, and strengthen cooperation and exchanges in fields such as the protection, preservation, and return of cultural heritage. They agreed to strengthen exchanges among educational institutions, teachers, researchers, and students, promote the exchange of scholarships, and cooperate in the field of sports.

"Exchanges between Peru and China will be more frequent in the future. I believe that more and more Peruvian students will learn Chinese and understand Chinese culture. Confucius Institutes and Luban Workshops will also provide more learning opportunities for Peruvian young people," said Jennifer Payán, principal of the Juan XXIII Peru-China School in Peru. Strengthening educational cooperation between the two countries is conducive to Peruvian students' better understanding of China, their "distant neighbor", and narrowing the psychological distance between the young people of the two countries.

Carlos Acaté, a Peruvian senior media person and economic scholar of Chinese descent, told reporters that in recent years, there have been more and more cultural and people-to-people exchanges between Peru and China. "Educational and cultural cooperation is like seeds planted. We have already seen the seeds germinate, grow, and even bear fruit. After President Xi Jinping's visit, educational and cultural cooperation between Peru and China will surely be further deepened. We will see more flowers blooming and more fruits bearing in the garden of Peru-China cooperation. We look forward to the young people of the two countries inheriting the traditional friendship and jointly building a more beautiful world."

"Both Peru and China have ancient civilizations and are important contributors to the inheritance and development of world civilizations," said Iván Ghezzi, a Peruvian archaeologist, at the archaeological workstation of the Chanquillo site on the outskirts of the city of Casma in Peru. "I have visited China many times for exchanges and introduced Peru's civilization and archaeological achievements to my Chinese counterparts. The exchanges and dialogues between the civilizations of Peru and China are helpful for promoting exchanges and mutual learning among global civilizations."

This year marks the tenth anniversary of President Xi Jinping's proposal to build a China-Latin America and the Caribbean Community with a Shared Future. During this visit, President Xi Jinping said that China is willing to continue to strengthen communication and cooperation with Peru under the framework of the China-Latin America and the Caribbean Forum and make positive contributions to promoting the development of China-Latin America and the Caribbean relations.

Maria Ostro, a researcher at the Asia Studies Center of the National University of San Marcos in Peru, said that the China-Latin America and the Caribbean Forum has made great contributions to promoting cooperation between the Latin American region and China in fields such as trade, investment, infrastructure, science and technology, and cultural and people-to-people exchanges. Latin American countries are willing to work with China to safeguard the multilateral trading system, jointly build an open world economy, and promote global connectivity and achieve common development through participating in the Belt and Road Initiative cooperation and the Global Development Initiative.（Outlook New Era）