(24 Oct 2007)
1. Wide of Costa Rican President Julio Arias and Chinese President Hu Jintao entering welcoming ceremony at the Great Hall of the People
2. Costa Rican Flag
3. Hu and Arias stepping onto podium at welcoming ceremony
4. Chinese official army band playing the Costa Rican national anthem
5. Hu and Arias standing on podium watching official ceremony
6. Wide of Hu motioning Arias to exit podium
7. Various of Hu and Arias on the red carpet
8. Navy officials
9. Hu and Arias on the red carpet walking passed army and navy officials
10. Chinese army band playing the Costa Rican national anthem
11. Wide of meeting between Costa Rican and Chinese delegations
12. Chinese President Hu Jintao
13. SOUNDBITE: (Mandarin) Hu Jintao, Chinese President:
"We highly appreciate the contribution that you, the Costa Rican President, has made to the development of ties between our two countries."
14.SOUNDBITE: (Spanish) Julio Arias, Costa Rican President:
"At that time, I struggled to achieve my main task of maintaining peace in Central America. At that time I had to deal with the two super powers - the US led by Reagan, and the Soviet Union led by Gorbachev. At that time I was already considering the possibility of creating a relationship with China but we already had too many front lines and so I didn't think that that was the appropriate time to make that decision."
15. Wide of meeting
16. Various of Chinese scholar Xu Shicheng, Senior Research Fellow, Institute of Latin American Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences
17. SOUNDBITE: (Spanish) Xu Shicheng, Senior Research Fellow, Institute of Latin American Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences:
"Costa Rica has been the first central American country that has broken relations with Taiwan to become allies with the People's Republic of China. This has broken the block that Taiwan had with all Central American countries. To the People's Republic of China this has enormous importance. We believe it is going to set an example to other countries in Central America."
18. Chinese scholar Xu Shicheng
STORYLINE:
China lavished praise on Costa Rican President Oscar Arias on Wednesday on his first visit to Beijing since he switched diplomatic ties from Taiwan.
After a formal welcoming ceremony outside the Great Hall of the People on Tiananmen Square, Chinese President Hu Jintao praised Arias for breaking with Beijing's archrival, Taiwan.
"We highly appreciate the contribution that you, the Costa Rican President, has made to the development of ties between our two countries," he said.
Arias, who has said he would be looking for investment and trade opportunities during his visit, said he wanted to establish diplomatic ties
during his first period as president from 1986 to 1990, but it was too difficult during the Cold War.
"At that time, I was already considering the possibility of creating a relationship with China but we already had too many front lines and so I didn't think that that was the appropriate time to make that decision," he told Hu.
China and Taiwan split amid civil war in 1949.
China continues to claim sovereignty over Taiwan and opposes anything that appears to back the island's separate status from the mainland, especially formal diplomatic ties with other countries.
The two sides compete ferociously for those ties, and both have given away (m) millions of dollars to bolster diplomatic relations or steal allies
from each other.
"To the People's Republic of China this has enormous importance. We believe it is going to set an example to other countries in Central
relations completely.
Find out more about AP Archive: [ Ссылка ]
Twitter: [ Ссылка ]
Facebook: [ Ссылка ]
Instagram: [ Ссылка ]
You can license this story through AP Archive: [ Ссылка ]
