Above: Bridgetown (CJ Photo)

By the Caribbean Journal staff

The recent meeting between Barbados Prime Minister Freundel Stuart and China President Xi Jinping included discussions about finalizing an air services agreement between the two countries.

The two leaders met during Xi’s visit to Trinidad this weekend.

“The President and I discussed the finalization of an Air Services Agreement between China and Barbados,” Stuart said. “He acknowledged that Chinese are traveling much more now than at any other time in the country’s history and are much more interested in visiting places like the Caribbean.”

It is important, he said, “that any stumbling blocks in their way at this time should be removed with as much haste as possible.”

Stuart said the issue of an air services agreement had been on the agenda “for some time,” but that he and Xi expressed the view that “the time had come when we had to get it behind us, rather than keep it in front of us.”

The two sides also looked at advertising Barbados as a tourist destination in Mandarin.

Stuart revealed that the country would be receiving about $8.2 million for “important projects” from China, and that the two countries were pursuing the establishment of a Confucus School at the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill.