Close ties vital after pandemic

ATHENS－As China and the European Union celebrate 45 years of relations this year, the two sides say they will expand bilateral trade and investment, deepen collaboration on post-epidemic economic recovery and promote multilateralism.

Those commitments were given during back-to-back European visits by two top Chinese foreign policy officials.

Yang Jiechi, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the CPC Central Committee, visited Spain and Greece on Thursday and Friday, after a visit by the Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi to five other European countries that ended on Tuesday.

As Europe works to turn back a resurgence of COVID-19 infections, jointly fighting the pandemic and seeking recovery once it is gone was a topic at meetings the two Chinese officials held separately with leaders and officials from the seven European countries.

The value of working together was one of the things they agreed on. Over the past few months China has mobilized large quantities of medical supplies and helped European countries in their fight against the virus in other ways.

In meetings with Yang, Greece's President Katerina Sakellaropoulou and Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez thanked China for its support in the COVID-19 fight, saying such deeds helped strengthen bilateral relations.

In a meeting with Wang, Italy's Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio expressed gratitude to China for its support.

Collaboration between China and others should be intensified, Sebastian Carlens, deputy editor-in-chief of the German daily Junge Welt, said on Friday.

"The recovery of the Chinese economy also offers the rest of the world opportunities to overcome the economic consequences of the lockdown more quickly," Carlens said.

Close cooperation with China is important for Germany and other EU states, he said.

Leaders and high-level officials of the seven European countries also expressed similar views on collaboration.

Germany's Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said he hoped for deeper collaboration in fields such as economics, trade and the humanities, and work on a COVID-19 vaccine. Greece's Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis confirmed his country's interest in strengthening ties, especially with investment, trade and tourism. The Dutch Foreign Ministry said that the two countries need each other to enable sustainable economic recovery after the COVID-19 crisis.

In the Netherlands and Norway, too, officials are looking at collaboration with China once the pandemic has cleared.

Xulio Rios, director of the Chinese Policy Observatory in Spain, said Yang's visit had been a very important initiative for strengthening bilateral relations, and given the importance of China as a partner for Spain, it helped reduce uncertainty in the context of the pandemic.

Strong wish

"Given that the pandemic has affected vital sectors of the relationship, from trade to tourism or investment, the visit highlights the interest of both parties to relaunch these areas of cooperation."

Greek companies have also expressed a strong wish to improve ties with their Chinese counterparts.

"Upon the announcement of this important high-level interaction, many expectations were created for further development in business and investments," said George Xiradakis, managing director of XRTC Business Consultants and vice-president of the Hellenic Chinese Chamber.

Defending multilateralism was one important consensus that was reaffirmed in Wang's and Yang's visits.

Yang, in his meeting with Sanchez, said China and Spain needed to jointly uphold multilateralism, uphold international equity and justice, and improve global governance. Greek leaders also pledged to support multilateralism and continue promoting both the development of EU-China relations and collaboration between China and Central and Eastern European countries.

"The strongest voice heard during my trip to Europe is that we need to steadfastly safeguard multilateralism, and we agreed on this," Wang said in Berlin on Tuesday.

Andras Inotai, former director of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences World Economics Research Institute, said that both the EU and China are strongly committed to strengthening multilateralism.

"In some areas globalization needs corrections, but its basic and overwhelming positive achievements should not be questioned. A corrected path of globalization has to be accompanied by strengthened multilateralism. In this context, a new quality of cooperation between the EU and China is crucial."

Xinhua