Latin America and the Caribbean will forge a strategic partnership with China on food security as well as agricultural and rural development, United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)'s regional office here said Monday.

Entering the alliance, the two sides will hold an agriculture ministers' joint forum in Beijing on June 8-9 and set up a 500,000-ton joint food reserve to deal with natural disasters and offer humanitarian aid.

Officials from the Chinese government and representatives from more than 20 Latin American and Caribbean countries met here Monday to prepare for the agriculture ministers' forum.

During the meeting, the two sides agreed to create a special fund of 50 million U.S. dollars to promote agriculture cooperation by establishing eight research and development centers in the region.

The cooperation proposal was first made in June 2012 by the then Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao during a meeting of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) in Santiago. Endi

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