President Xi Jinping and his Mexican counterpart Enrique Pena Nieto celebrate after they signed a joint declaration in Mexico City on Tuesday. [Yao Dawei/Xinhua]

President Xi Jinping's visit to Mexico shows the new Chinese leadership's support for Mexico's development and their will to expand and deepen cooperation. On Tuesday, Xi and his Mexican counterpart, Enrique Pena Nieto, pledged they will enhance political dialogue on bilateral, regional and global issues so as to consolidate the China-Mexico comprehensive strategic partnership.

Since diplomatic ties were established 40 years ago, bilateral relations have developed rapidly. Confucius said, at 40 one should be free of doubts, and China-Mexico ties have matured and are now robust, featuring mutual respect and mutual benefit. And with Mexico's Institutional Revolutionary Party returning to power, China-Mexico relations can open a new chapter in their longstanding friendship.

Mexico established diplomatic relations with China in 1972. At the 26th session of the UN General Assembly, seven Latin American and Caribbean countries, including Mexico, Trinidad and Tobago and Cuba voted that the government of the People's Republic of China was the only legitimate representative of China to the United Nations.

In the 1970s and 1980s, China and Mexico cooperated in the international community supporting South-South cooperation in a bid to promote the establishment of a new international political and economic order.

In 2003, the two countries forged a strategic partnership, expanding their friendly exchanges and cooperation in various fields.

Both China and Mexico are emerging economies with increasingly close bilateral economic and trade relations and the two countries' influence on the global governance reform is irreplaceable. China is Mexico's second-largest trading partner, while Mexico is China's second-largest trading partner in Latin America. The two countries should take more political initiative and make pragmatic policy efforts to push relations to a new level.

On issues concerning each other's core national interests, the two countries should enhance mutual understanding and properly handle their differences. And partisan politics in Mexico should not be allowed to have an adverse impact on the bilateral relationship.

What concerns Mexico most is how to narrow the huge trade deficit with China. The trade imbalance is an indisputable fact mainly due to the differences in the two countries' economic structures. To solve the problem, the two sides should adopt a constructive attitude, put more political resources into their economic cooperation mechanism and improve the quality, level and sustainability of their economic and trade cooperation.