The agreement came on the sidelines of a gathering of leaders from the region in the Chinese capital during which Xi also pledged US$9.2 billion in credit towards “development”.

After a meeting this morning between Xi and Colombian President Gustavo Petro, “the two heads of state witnessed the signing of a cooperation plan between the two governments on jointly building the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road”, state news agency Xinhua reported.

Xi urged the countries to “take the opportunity of Colombia’s formal joining the high-quality BRI family to promote the quality upgrading of cooperation,” Xinhua said.

Posting a video of the signing to social media platform X, Petro wrote that “the history of our foreign relations is changing”.

“From now on, Colombia will interact with the entire world on a footing of equality and freedom,” wrote Petro.

Two-thirds of Latin American countries have already signed up to Beijing’s trillion-dollar BRI infrastructure programme, and China has surpassed the US as the biggest trading partner of Brazil, Peru and Chile, among others.

The BRI is a central pillar of Xi’s bid to expand his country’s economic and political clout overseas.

For more than a decade it has provided investment for infrastructure and other large-scale projects around the world, offering Beijing political and economic leverage in return.