Chinese President Xi Jinping called Barbados a good friend, partner of China on Tuesday during a phone call with Barbadian Prime Minister Mia Mottley.

Xi hailed the high-level exchanges and productive cooperation between the two countries in the past 44 years since the establishment of diplomatic ties.

Noting that Barbados needs help during the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic, Xi said that China, as a friend of the country, will step up cooperation in vaccines and healthcare areas to support the country to win the fight against virus.

Stressing that both China and Barbados are committed to their people-centered development strategy, Xi said that China is ready to enhance exchanges in governance and expand cooperation in areas such as infrastructure to push forward the bilateral cooperation to a higher level.

China will continue offering assistance at best of its capacity for Barbados' national development, pledged Xi, calling on the two sides to enhance coordination in international affairs and work jointly to defend the common interests of developing countries.

China is ready to push forward cooperation under the framework of Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) with Barbados as well as other countries in Caribbean region, said Xi, who hopes the country engages actively in promoting China's ties and cooperation with the Caribbean Community and with Latin American countries as the whole.

The Barbadian side is happy to have friends like China, Mottley said, adding that her country is willing to strengthen bilateral practical cooperation and multilateral communication with China.

The Barbadian prime minister also called for promoting Barbados-China relations and Latin America-China relations.

She also spoke out against politicization of COVID-19 origin tracing and appreciated China's positive contribution to promoting fair distribution of vaccines in developing countries.