BEIJING: Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Tuesday wrapped up his visits to Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Norway, with consensus reached with the four Nordic countries to uphold bilateral partnerships and strengthen mutually beneficial cooperation in trade, economy and other key areas.
Wang, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, met with Danish King Frederik X, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, Finnish President Alexander Stubb and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store during his six-day visit.
China and the four Nordic countries also pledged to deepen green and innovation cooperation, enhance collaboration on global governance, and expand people-to-people exchanges.
The countries agreed to further implement the important consensus reached between Chinese President Xi Jinping and the leaders of the four countries, maintain close high-level exchanges, and strengthen strategic communication.
They agreed to further enrich the China-Denmark comprehensive strategic partnership, build sound, stable and sustainable China-Sweden relations, deepen the China-Finland future-oriented new-type cooperative partnership, and explore ways to advance the positioning of the China-Norway partnership, to realize the steady development of the overall partnership between China and the Nordic region.
While they pledged to respect and accommodate each other’s core interests and major concerns and properly handle their differences, the four Nordic countries reaffirmed their firm commitment to the one-China policy.
The Chinese side stressed that China and Europe are partners rather than rivals, and cooperation should be the defining feature of their relations. Both sides supported strengthening comprehensive dialogue between China and Europe at all levels.
Deepening mutually beneficial economic and trade cooperation
The Chinese side underscored that economic and trade cooperation serves as the ballast of relations between China and the four countries; therefore, deepening cooperation is not an option but a necessity, with both sides sharing opportunities through open development and achieving win-win outcomes.
Both sides firmly support free trade and economic globalization and oppose unilateral actions, “decoupling” and disruptions to industrial and supply chains.
Wang reaffirmed that the Chinese market will remain open at a high level to enterprises from all countries, including the four Nordic countries, while expressing his hope that the four countries will provide Chinese enterprises with a fair, just and non-discriminatory business environment.
Meanwhile, the countries spoke positively of the establishment of the China-European Union (EU) trade and investment consultation mechanism, supporting continued efforts by China and the EU to meet each other halfway and seeking appropriate solutions to their economic and trade differences.
The Chinese side reiterated that China has never deliberately pursued a trade surplus and hopes that the EU will remain open, avoid restrictive legislative measures and ease restrictions on exports of high-value products to China, promoting more balanced and high-quality China-EU trade. –The Daily Mail-CGTN news exchange item
