LatAm, East Asia seek better integration: Costa Rican president

Latin American and East Asian countries are looking for better integration at a forum that opened here Friday near Costa Rica's capital city San Jose, the Costa Rican president said.

Those countries, united by the Pacific Ocean, have a "great aspiration" for integration, said Costa Rican President Luis Guillermo Solis when inaugurating the Forum for East Asia-Latin America Cooperation's (FEALAC) 7th Foreign Minister's Meeting in Escazu, a suburb of San Jose.

The region, covered by FEALAC, is important as it makes up a third of the world's area, 40 percent of the world's population, 33 percent of the volume of the world's trade and 35 percent of the world's Gross Domestic Product, Solis said.

"For Costa Rica, the ministerial meeting is of particular importance as we identify with the bi-regional objectives and want them to come to fruition," Solis said.

This is the first time the meeting is being held in Central America, he said.

"I hope this forum will be productive and a step forward to generate mutual agreements and projects between all the countries involved in FEALAC," said Thailand's permanent secretary for the Foreign Affairs Ministry Norachit Sinhaseni at the inauguration, who co-chaired the meeting with Solis.

Thailand and Costa Rica have been sharing the presidency of FEALAC since 2013.

The forum attracted ministers, deputy ministers and delegates from 35 countries in East Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean. The representatives also talked in plenary sessions to approve projects and agreements presented during the previous two days' workshop.

A Chinese delegation headed by Yin Hengmin, special representative of the Chinese government on Latin American affairs, also attended the meeting. Endi