Honduran President Xiomara Castro has arrived in Shanghai on her first trip to mainland China since the Central American nation established diplomatic ties with Beijing in March.
Castro was met at the airport on Friday by Hua Yuan, Shanghai's deputy mayor, and assistant foreign minister Hua Chunying, and welcomed by the Old Jazz Band performing a Honduran song at the Peace Hotel, where she is staying.
Castro is expected to spend two days in the financial hub before heading to Beijing where she will meet Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
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Honduras switched diplomatic allegiance to Beijing after severing ties with Taipei, leaving the self-ruled island - which Beijing sees as part of its territory - with just 13 allies.
In Shanghai, the Honduran president was expected to meet the city's party secretary, Chen Jining, on Friday evening.
She will also visit the New Development Bank established by the BRICS emerging economies and meet Dilma Rousseff, the former Brazilian president who now chairs the bank, according to an agenda posted by her entourage on Twitter.
Castro is expected to visit the research and development centre of Huawei Technologies, which has been operating in Honduras since 2008. The Chinese telecoms giant also hosted a group of Honduran journalists this week, according to state broadcaster CGTN.
Castro's state visit is likely to boost economic ties between the two nations, paving the way for Honduras to pursue a free-trade agreement with the world's second-largest economy, which ranks after the United States in trade volume with Latin America.
Announcing the trip in a tweet on Tuesday, Castro said she hoped to build "political, scientific, technical, commercial and cultural" ties with Beijing.
Honduras had been part of a free-trade agreement with El Salvador and Taiwan, but that ended in May after El Salvador cut diplomatic ties with Taipei in 2018.
Honduras has also expressed hope for China to help lighten its debt burden - its general government gross debt has stood at about half of its GDP in the past two years, according to data from the International Monetary Fund.
Castro's trip comes after China opened an embassy in the Honduran capital Tegucigalpa on Monday.
At an event inaugurating the new embassy, its charge d'affaires Yu Bo said the approval process for Honduras to export prawns, melons, coffee and other products to China was progressing.