The Ba­hamas gov­ern­ment Fri­day said its re­la­tion­ship with Chi­na is “root­ed in co­op­er­a­tion, de­vel­op­ment and shared val­ues” as the two coun­tries signed a frame­work agree­ment for the con­struc­tion of a new spe­cial­i­ty hos­pi­tal in west­ern New Prov­i­dence.

“This is a sig­nif­i­cant oc­ca­sion, not sim­ply be­cause of what it sets in mo­tion, but be­cause of what it rep­re­sents, the con­tin­ued friend­ship and mu­tu­al re­spect be­tween our two na­tions,” Prime Min­is­ter Phillip Davis said at the sign­ing cer­e­mo­ny for the project es­ti­mat­ed at near­ly US$300 mil­lion.

He said that over the years, Nas­sau and Bei­jing have forged a strong re­la­tion­ship “root­ed in co­op­er­a­tion, de­vel­op­ment, and shared val­ues” and that re­la­tion­ship has tak­en many forms, in­clud­ing in­vest­ment in in­fra­struc­ture, sup­port for ed­u­ca­tion, cul­tur­al ex­changes, and long­stand­ing diplo­mat­ic en­gage­ment.