China-Greece cooperation of greater strategic significance

President Xi Jinping signed a number of agreements and issued a joint statement on strengthening comprehensive strategic partnership during his state visit to Greece from Nov 10 to 12. China-Greece cooperation is richer in content now and of greater strategic significance, which means bilateral relations have reached a new level.

First, as far as bilateral exchanges are concerned, the leaders of the two countries are more closely engaged than ever before. In April, Alexis Tsipras, then Greek prime minister, visited China to attend the Second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation.

In May, Greek President Prokopios Pavlopoulos paid a state visit to China and attended the Conference on Dialogue of Asian Civilizations. Although the Greek people voted in a new government in July, bilateral relations did not suffer. The new prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, visited China early this month to attend the 2nd China International Import Expo in Shanghai. A few days later, President Xi paid a state visit to Greece.

During President Xi's visit, the two sides signed agreements covering agriculture, energy, communications, education, finance and other fields, thus enriching the content of cooperation. In the energy sector, investment by the State Grid Corporation of China will help improve Greece's power supply and thus the overall economy.

The establishment of a branch of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China in Greece will also help provide more and higher-quality financial services for economic development, especially for major bilateral cooperation projects. Greece has a favorable geographical position and a lot of distinctive agricultural products, which will allow it to gain further access to the growing Chinese market.

And the cooperation between the two sides may serve as a model for promoting the Belt and Road Initiative.

In Greece, President Xi paid a visit to the port of Piraeus, a flagship project for both countries. He said the Piraeus port project is a successful example of China and Greece complementing each other's advantages.

What's more, the Greek government's approval of Cosco's $677.43 million new investment in the port will not only promote Greece's economic development, but also turn Piraeus into an even more important port in the Mediterranean and the Belt and Road Initiative.

The new investment comes at a time when Europe is increasingly suspicious of direct investment from China, even though Chinese investment in Europe helped some European Union countries overcome the sovereign debt crisis. But concerns over Chinese investment in Europe have increased in the past two years. New investment review regulations have been issued at both the national and European levels. As a result, the amount of Chinese investment in Europe has declined.

However, judging from the approval of Cosco's new investment, Greece still holds a welcoming and pragmatic attitude toward Chinese investment, which might prompt other European countries to rethink their stance. At the same time, the successful operation and importance of Piraeus port has been further enhanced, which means the Belt and Road Initiative has effectively promoted the development of regions and achieved tangible results. And China will make the initiative more attractive so more and more countries join it.

Third, China-Greece cooperation is conducive to multilateralism and free trade at both the China-EU and global levels.

The world economy still faces uncertainties. How to deal with unilateralism and protectionism is a severe challenge. Greece, despite its relatively small economic size, has made valuable contributions to free trade and multilateralism. In fact, Greece officially joined the China-CEEC (China and Central and Eastern European countries) cooperation mechanism in April, turning it into a "17+1" cooperation mechanism and bringing bilateral cooperation into the multilateral framework.

During his visit to China early this month, Greek Prime Minister Mitsotakis expressed his country's support for multilateralism. In March, President Xi visited Italy, Monaco and France. In April, Premier Li Keqiang went to Europe to attend the China-EU meeting and the China-CEEC meeting. President Xi's visit to Greece this time shows that a comprehensive diplomatic layout of cooperation with major and smaller European countries, and EU institutions has been drawn up, and cooperation with Greece is an important part of Sino-European relations.

President Xi also pointed out that China-Greece cooperation should be a model for promoting China-Europe cooperation. Judging from the all-round attention his visit got in Greece and Europe, the sample effect of bilateral cooperation should not be underestimated.

Friendship holds the key to sound state-to-state relations. President Xi's visit was aimed at promoting exchanges between the two civilizations, which shows China is committed to developing long-standing bilateral relations with Greece. And it shows there is still a large space for the development of bilateral relations.

The author is deputy director of the Institute of European Studies at China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations.

The author contributed this article to China Watch exclusively. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of China Watch.

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