BEIJING: Chinese President Xi Jinping’s remarks during a virtual meeting on China’s relations with the European Union(EU) are crucial to multilateral cooperation and a global economic recovery, experts have said.
Speaking to EU leaders, Xi said China and the EU should adhere to peaceful coexistence, openness and cooperation, multilateralism, as well as dialogue and consultation for the sound and stable development of their relations. Xi made the remarks when co-hosting a meeting held on Monday via video link with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose country currently holds the EU’s rotating presidency, European Council President Charles Michel and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. Christine Bierre, editor-in-chief of France’s Nouvelle Solidarite magazine and an expert at the Schiller France Institute, said four principles to promote EU-China ties that Xi proposed at the meeting are objective and rational, charting the course for future development of bilateral relations and sending a positive signal on safeguarding world peace, stability and prosperity. The EU and China have put forward a series of specific arrangements for further deepening cooperation, fully demonstrating that multilateral cooperation is the trend of the times, Bierre said. George N. Tzogopoulos, director of EU-China Programs at the Center International de Formation Europeenne, a think tank headquartered in Nice, France, said the most important result of the meeting is that the EU and China have shown the world their consensus on closer cooperation. nXi’s proposal won broad approval in Europe, said Tzogopoulos, adding that the EU and China will proceed together in forging a multilateral world. Sylwester Szafarz, former consul general of Poland in the Chinese city of Shanghai, said the meeting, held amid ongoing global upheaval due to the pandemic, is the latest testimony to the good partnership between China and the EU.
“There is no doubt that the agreement signed and the consensus reached at this summit will not only bring fruitful long-term results to the parties concerned, but also to the peoples of the entire Eurasian continent and even the whole world,” Szafarz said. – Agencies
