European Union leaders will sit down next week with Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang to discuss the bloc’s relationship with Beijing, perhaps the biggest external economic and diplomatic challenge currently facing the EU.
“OUR GOAL MAINTAIN BALANCED AND HONEST RELATIONSHIP”
Li’s trip comes barely a fortnight after Chinese President Xi Jinping ended a three-nation European tour, which took him to Italy, Monaco and France. The Chinese premier’s visit to Europe scheduled for April 8 to 12, will take him to Brussels for the 21st China-EU leaders summit and Croatia for an official visit and the meeting of China and Central and Eastern European countries (CEEC), according to Chinese Foreign Ministry.
European Council President Donald Tusk and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker will co-host the EU-China summit. “Our aim is to focus on achieving a balanced relation, which ensures fair competition and equal market access. In this context, we hope to persuade China to include industrial subsidies as a crucial element of the Word Trade Organisation reform,” Tusk said in late March.
Both sides will also discuss the future of global governance, the implementation of the Paris Agreement on climate change, the issues of sustainable development, cybersecurity, and security issues in the region, the European Commission’s website said. China is the second-largest trade partner for EU with goods worth $674 billion, according to Eurostat. Data show the EU had a trade deficit worth $185 billion with China last year.