The 11th China-European Union (EU) summit, after being postponed from December in France due to well-known reasons, will be held on Wednesday in the Czech capital of Prague.
The resumption within half a year shows that China and the EU can endure all kinds of difficulties and tests, and shows the common desire of both sides to consolidate and develop the bilateral relationship, and indicates that the China-EU comprehensive strategic partnership is at a new historical threshold.
At the beginning of China's Lunar New Year, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao made a "journey of confidence" to the EU headquarters and four European countries, which hugely promoted the two sides' confidence of cooperation.
During his visit, Wen agreed with European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso that enhanced China-EU cooperation bears significance for the world and the China-EU summit would be held as soon as possible in 2009.
Besides, as the relationship between China and France gradually improved, conditions for the summit were ripe.
The upcoming summit will take place when the international situation is much different from earlier in the year. The global financial crisis has caused damage to the real economy, and A/H1N1influenza is posing a challenge to both China and Europe.
In this scenario, Premier Wen's attendance at the summit not only demonstrates China attaching great importance to the China-Incomprehensive strategic partnership, but also China's determination and sincerity to join hands with the EU to deal with global issues such as the financial crisis.
The summit will also help stabilize the China-EU relationship and strengthen its favorable trend of development.
The twists and turns in China-EU relations last year provided an opportunity for reflection. As a high-level EU official said at a recent seminar, China and the EU should seek common ground while reserving differences under the comprehensive strategic partnership, which does not demand identical ideas from both sides.
It will be a wise choice for both sides to respect the core interests of each other and deal properly with differences, compared with which, the China-EU cooperation is definitely the mainstream.
China and the EU attach great importance to each other in their strategic considerations. Both sides have common economic interests and have a broad range of global issues to cooperate on. Therefore, a healthy and stable relationship serves the core interests of both sides. Leaders from both sides need to strengthen dialogue and exchange of contacts from a global strategic perspective on the basis of equality and mutual respect.
In the face of the ongoing global financial crisis, the Prague China-EU summit is expected to push forward bilateral trade and economic cooperation which remains a key element of the China-EU comprehensive strategic partnership.
Last year, the bilateral trade volume exceeded 400 billion US dollars for the first time. The EU remains China's biggest trade partner and largest export market. Recently, the EU became China's largest source of imports while China remains the EU's second largest trade partner. China's steadily growing market presents great opportunities for European enterprises.
However, since the beginning of this year, China-EU trade has been increasingly affected by the financial meltdown. Both sides are facing a key task to strengthen trade and economic cooperation and join hands to tide over the crisis.
Sound cooperation between China and Europe, including participation in each other's stimulus plans, will help both sides fight trade and investment protectionism, boost confidence, and promote early recovery of the global economy.
In December, the UN Climate Chance Conference will be held in the Danish capital of Copenhagen and various parties are still negotiating on a final deal. The Prague summit will help China and Europe to better understand each other's position on the issue and carry out practical cooperation.
In fact, China and the EU have huge potential in cooperating in the fight against climate change. Both sides may expand cooperation in developing new energy and energy saving technologies, promoting a low-carbon economy, and making environment-friendly industries new economic growth sectors.
There is a famous Chinese saying: people should see and tackle their issues from a long-term perspective with an open eye. Since 1975, China-EU ties have been upgraded from the constructive partnership to the comprehensive partnership to the current comprehensive strategic partnership which was established in 2003.This triple-jump process indicates that China-Europe relations are deepening with increasing global strategic significance.
It is believed that the 11th China-EU summit, which has not come easily, will push forward China-EU ties to a new phase of development.
(Xinhua News Agency May 20, 2009)
