BUDAPEST/Xinhua
Chinese President Xi Jinping concluded his first trip to Europe in nearly five years on Friday, reiterating to European leaders that China remains a committed partner and is willing to strengthen mutually beneficial cooperation between the two sides.
Over six days, Xi’s travels took him to France, Serbia and Hungary where he constantly stressed the importance of the China-Europe relationship in encouraging global peace and prosperity.
The message, delivered amid rising protectionism and rising geopolitical tensions, represented China’s latest effort to promote stability and cooperation on the global stage.
At a trilateral meeting in Paris on Monday with French President Emmanuel Macron and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Xi said China-European Union (EU) cooperation is essentially complementary and mutually beneficial and that China always sees relations with the EU from a strategic and long-term perspective. This relationship is not directed against any third party nor should it depend on or be dictated by third parties, Xi said.
Macron, a major supporter of Europe’s strategic autonomy, emphasized that France and the EU need to strengthen cooperation with China as this affects Europe’s future.
France hopes to strengthen dialogue and cooperation with China and reinforce mutual trust and friendship between France and China, as well as between the EU and China, he said.
France has long defended Europe’s strategic autonomy, said Eric Alauzet, president of the France-China Friendship Group of the French National Assembly. “This does not mean going backwards after the East-West confrontation…so this multipolarity, this multipolar and multilateral world is what China and France want in common,” Alauzet said.
Later, in talks with Macron, Xi urged the two sides to defend independence and jointly avoid a new Cold War or bloc confrontation.
On many occasions during his stay in France, Xi referred to the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and France 60 years ago, a historic event in China-West relations.
This significant historical event, described by the Western press at the time as “a diplomatic nuclear explosion,” shook public discourse in the West and had an enormous impact on the international scene. It occurred eight years before former US President Richard Nixon’s historic trip to China in 1972.
At the time, then-French leader General Charles de Gaulle reportedly noted that France had to listen to China’s voice directly and vice versa and that governments that maintained a wait-and-see attitude would sooner or later They would have to follow France’s lead.
In a signed article published Sunday in the French newspaper Le Figaro, Xi noted that “history is our best teacher” as the current world “is far from calm and once again faces a multitude of risks.”
“China stands ready to work with France in the spirit that guided the establishment of our diplomatic ties to forge a stronger comprehensive strategic partnership between our two nations and make new contributions to stronger cooperation of the global community,” Xi wrote.
“There are so many crises that big countries like China and France must work together and the work must be done in a spirit of multilateralism,” said former French Prime Minister Laurent Fabius.
Given the severity of major global challenges such as ending conflicts, strengthening economic development and addressing climate change and major health crises, effective resolution requires cooperation among all nations, he said.
In their visits to Serbia and Hungary, respectively, Xi and the leaders of these two Central and Eastern European nations announced decisions aimed at raising the level of bilateral ties. This strengthening coincided with China’s robust and growing investment flows into the region. From January to March 2024 alone, China’s investment in Central and Eastern European countries rose 36.35 percent compared to the previous year to reach nearly $450 million. By March 2024, the cumulative total of Chinese investment in the Central and Eastern European nations region reached $5.2 billion.
Take Hungary as an example. In 2023, Hungary managed to attract a total of 13 billion euros (about 13.86 billion dollars) in foreign direct investment, of which about 8 billion euros (8.53 billion dollars) came from China, said the Hungarian minister of National Economy, Marton Nagy, in an interview with Xinhua.
The Hungarian side hopes to further boost cooperation with China in the areas of foreign trade, capital investment, infrastructure, logistics, artificial intelligence and new energy, among others, he said.
That is also the case in Serbia. “Over the past two years, China has become the largest foreign direct investor in Serbia, which has brought numerous benefits to the country,” said Jelena Grubor Stefanovic, director of the representative office of the Serbian Chamber of Commerce and Industry. in China.
“Now Serbia has more opportunities to systematically focus on attracting investments from China in industrial sectors with high added value such as life sciences, digital economy, automotive industry, the smart agricultural sector and green development,” he said.
Chen Fengying, a researcher at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, said China’s strengthened cooperation with Serbia and Hungary has stimulated local economic growth and raised living standards.
This success is a compelling example of the tangible benefits gained from building partnerships with China and collective progress, Chen said.
This achievement has also had a notable inspiring and motivating influence on other Central and Eastern European countries, he added.
Xi’s visit to Europe comes as Washington maneuvers to rally its allies in the West to “de-risk” and “decouple” from China, and slow the country’s high-tech progress, protectionist tactics that European leaders reject.
At the trilateral meeting between China, France and the EU, Macron reiterated that the EU rejects the logic of decoupling.
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