China firmly supports Latin American nations in upholding their autonomy and pursuing international cooperation based on their own interests, Chinese President Xi Jinping told his Ecuadorian counterpart Daniel Noboa on Tuesday.

“Latin American and Caribbean nations should have freedom to choose their international partners without outside interference,” Xi said, in a veiled criticism of US interventions in the region since Donald Trump returned to the White House in 2025.

Like many of its Latin American neighbours, Ecuador is trying to balance its relations between China and the United States in the face of this growing assertiveness from Washington.

“The status of Latin America and the Caribbean as a zone of peace should not be shaken, and the path of development for Latin American and Caribbean countries should not be interrupted”, Xi said, according to state news agency Xinhua.

The zone of peace was a declaration signed by 33 Latin American and Caribbean states in 2014, in which they rejected the use of force to settle disputes, banned nuclear weapons and rejected foreign military intervention.

Noboa said Ecuador was willing to “be a good friend to China on the other side of the Pacific”, according to Xinhua.