Beijing, China.- President Xi Jinping thanked top Cuban leaders for congratulating China for the eradication of extreme poverty, local media reported.

The president expressed his gratitude in a letter to the First Secretary of the Central Committe of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC), Raul Castro, and President Miguel Diaz-Canel.

Xi also noted that in recent years, the friendship between the two nations has deepened along with cooperation, which encompasses multiple socioeconomic sectors.

‘In the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic, China and Cuba have been united and have supported each other, which have strengthened their friendship,’ Xi stated in the text.

Likewise, Xi reiterated China’s willingness to support Cuba to keep the path of socialism and upgrade bilateral relations to higher levels.

According to Chinese media, Cuban leaders recently acknowledged in a message the results of the fight against extreme poverty here, and reaffirmed the will to further foster cooperation.

On February 25, Xi declared China free of extreme poverty, thanks to a campaign that has improved the living conditions of 98.99 million individuals and 832 severely impoverished rural counties of China since 2012.

In general, China took more than 770 million people out of extreme poverty since the late 1970s.

In addition, China complied with the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, a decade ahead of what was planned.