Visiting Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping and Mexican President Felipe Calderon on Tuesday pledged their countries' efforts to further expand bilateral pragmatic cooperation. 

On China-Latin America ties, Xi said mutually beneficial cooperation has reached an unprecedented level in recent years, and China is now the third largest trading partner of Latin America. China is ready to work with Latin American and Caribbean countries to expand their cooperation and strive to build a partnership of all-round cooperation based on equality, mutual benefit and common development.

Calderon said the top leaders of the two countries have met 19 times on bilateral and multilateral occasions over the past eight years, which has greatly boosted the development of bilateral ties. 

Mexico is among the first Latin American countries to establish diplomatic ties with China and attaches great importance to promoting friendly cooperation with China, treating China as an important partner for strategic cooperation.

Under the new circumstances, Mexico is ready to further strengthen pragmatic cooperation with China in various areas, deepen their strategic dialogue and enhance coordination and cooperation on major international and regional issues, he added.

There is much Mexico could learn from China's measures to tackle the global financial crisis, he said, adding that against the backdrop of global economic woes, Mexico is ready to work together with China to jointly meet the challenges brought about by the financial crisis.

The Mexican government always welcomes Chinese firms to trade and invest in Mexico and will try to create favorable conditions for them, Calderon said.

The Mexican president also said his country will participate actively in the 2010 World Expo to be held in Shanghai.

Mexico is the first leg of Xi's six nation-tour, which will also take him to Jamaica, Colombia, Venezuela, Brazil and Malta.