China and EU should push relations to ‘a new level with new prospects’, Wang Yi tells European envoys in Beijing
Li, Michel and von der Leyen would jointly chair the summit, the Chinese foreign ministry said in its statement on Monday.
During the meeting with the envoys, Wang stressed that China and the EU did not have completely the same views on international and regional issues.
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“Only through adhering to communication and coordination can we play a constructive role in maintaining world peace and stability and addressing global challenges,” he said.
The European Council said the focus of the gathering would be the state of EU-China relations and global hotspot issues – including Russia’s war in Ukraine and the Middle East situation – and it would help pursue “constructive and stable EU-China relations”.
The summit comes after several high-level interactions between the EU and Chinese officials in recent months, with Premier Li and Vice-Premier He Lifeng visiting EU countries. The EU’s trade chief Valdis Dombrovskis and the bloc’s top diplomat Josep Borrell, as well as the leaders of several European countries, visited China as part of the exchange.
Last year, China was the third largest recipient of the EU’s exported goods and had the most goods imported into the EU, according to Eurostat. While the EU’s goods exports to China remain largely stable, there has been strong growth in imports from China in recent years.
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According to the Chinese statement, the envoys said the EU had no intention of decoupling from China and hoped to build “mutually beneficial and balanced economic and trade relations”.