General

On the occasion of spring return, China and the EU held intensive high-level meetings to talk about comprehensive strategic partnership and mutually beneficial cooperation in international trade and convey a positive voice of win-win cooperation to the world.

From February 14 to 22, Wang Yi, member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and director of the Office of the Central Foreign Affairs Committee, was invited to visit France, Italy, Hungary and Russia, and attended the 59th Munich Security Conference. This is the first time that China's top diplomatic official has visited Europe since the 20th CPC National Congress.

Bring new hope to global development

On February 23, at the end of his trip to Europe, Wang Yi said in an interview that friendship is the main tone of China's policy towards Europe and cooperation is the overall goal of China's policy towards Europe. We have always positioned China and Europe as two major forces to maintain world peace, two major markets to promote common development, and two major civilizations to promote human progress. Both sides are partners rather than rivals, opportunities rather than threats. China-EU relations have always been global and strategic, and the choices made by both sides affect the direction of the world. If China and the EU choose dialogue and cooperation, the camp opposition will not form; If China and Europe choose peace and stability, a new cold war will not start; If China and Europe choose to open and win, there is hope for global development and prosperity. This is the responsibility of China and the EU under the new historical conditions.

Wang Yi pointed out that European countries are full of expectations for China's development and China's role in the world. They are all willing to promote the China-EU comprehensive strategic partnership and mutually beneficial cooperation in international trade to warm up, and they are all looking forward to comprehensively restarting face-to-face exchanges at all levels and comprehensively activating dialogue and cooperation in all fields. I think China-EU relations will present a positive development trend this year.

China-France strategic cooperation has long been at the forefront of China-West cooperation. The two sides agreed to jointly prepare for high-level exchanges in the next stage, strengthen strategic coordination in response to global challenges, and continue to carry forward the tradition of independence on the international stage. The two sides agreed to make the Year of Culture and Tourism and the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations distinctive, deepen practical cooperation in aerospace, agro-food, green development, and third-party markets, and enhance the ability to solve the food and energy crisis, climate change, biodiversity and other issues.

Italy has a tradition of friendship with China, and is a natural partner in jointly building the "the Belt and Road". The two sides agreed to give full play to the planning and coordination role of the China-Italian Government Committee in practical cooperation in various fields, well organize the closing ceremony of the China-Italian Cultural Tourism Year, and promote the exchange of personnel in education, culture, tourism and other fields to return to the pre-epidemic level as soon as possible.

Hungary is the first European country to sign a cooperation document with China to jointly build the "the Belt and Road". The two sides reaffirmed their firm support for each other in safeguarding their sovereignty, security and development interests, and made good use of mechanisms and platforms such as the China Hungary Intergovernmental "the Belt and Road" Cooperation Committee to continue to expand new areas of cooperation such as new energy and connectivity, so as to promote more cooperation results to benefit people's livelihood.

Wang Yi said that this year marks the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the comprehensive strategic partnership between China and the EU. China and the EU agreed to prepare for this year's China-EU leaders' meeting, play the pillar role of the China-EU strategic, economic and trade, green, digital and people-to-people high-level dialogue, jointly safeguard multilateralism and free trade, jointly safeguard the stability of the global industrial chain supply chain, and jointly safeguard the rule of law and standardized international trade environment.

Add new impetus to China-EU cooperation

George Trogopoulos, the head of the "Europe China" project of the International Center for European Studies, said that "Wang Yi's visit to Europe is very important because it is a critical moment in the relationship between the EU and China." In March 2019, the European Union published the "EU China Strategic Outlook", which for the first time defined China as not only a "partner", but also an "economic competitor" and "institutional competitor". "The main reason for this is that the rise of China has caused the concern of Europe, which will have a serious impact on the international trading system. In this context, the European Union hopes to cooperate with China, but at the same time, it needs to defend its interests and values. The biggest problem is the extent of cooperation," said Tsogoplos.

Jin Ling, deputy director of the European Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of International Studies, said that France is the leader in promoting European sovereignty in Europe. In addition to bilateral practical cooperation, the focus of this visit is to seek mutual consensus from the strategic level to address common challenges. Italy is the only country in the Group of Seven (G7) countries that has signed the "the Belt and Road" memorandum with China. It chose to visit Italy in the hope that under the "the Belt and Road" framework, bilateral cooperation can make breakthroughs, promote the sound development of China EU relations through major countries, and promote the development of international trade.

On February 20, Wang Yi came to Hungary, another country along the the Belt and Road. Jin Ling said, "Hungary represents the Central and Eastern European plate. Hungary has an exemplary role in practical cooperation with China, and hopes to recalibrate the direction of the cooperation between Central and Eastern Europe and expand the results of cooperation under the existing platform."

Moscow is the last stop of Wang Yi's trip. On February 22, Russian President Putin met with Wang Yi in Moscow. French Radio International said that Putin's rare reception of foreign officials who are not heads of state in the Kremlin is an "exception", which highlights the special relationship between Russia and China.

Zhao Chen, a researcher at the European Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, analyzed that many details of the meeting between Wang Yi and Putin conveyed the unbreakable strategic relationship between China and Russia. "The seating position shows the emotional distance between the two sides. Different from the treatment of western politicians, Putin and Wang Yi sat at the 'near spot' of the long table. They talked happily in two dialects, exchanged many issues of mutual concern, and expressed optimism about the development prospects of the China-Russia comprehensive strategic partnership of cooperation."

According to the data released by Eurostat on February 15, the total amount of goods trade between Europe and China in 2022 reached 856.3 billion euros, an increase of about 23% over 2021, reaching a new high. Although there are still many contradictions and uncertainties between the EU and European countries in their policies towards China, the two sides are still trying to maintain dialogue and contact. At the end of 2022, German Prime Minister Schultz and European Council President Michel visited China successively; In the spring of 2023, French President Marcon and Italian Prime Minister Meloni will also visit China. All kinds of interactions convey positive signals of China-EU cooperation to the outside world.

Jin Ling believes that Europe's search for a place in the changing situation fundamentally depends on how to deal with the relations between major powers. Whether it is Schultz's visit to China or Michel's visit to China, "cooperation" is still the theme word; Europeans clearly realize that today's international problems cannot be solved without China's participation; In the context of globalization, "decoupling" is not in line with European interests.