
On July 5, Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke with French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel via video link for the second time in three months. In the meeting, both sides agreed to sustain multilateral cooperation across a range of areas including COVID-19, aid, trade, business, climate change and cultural and digital matters.
They agreed to advance several agreements, including the China-EU arrangement on geographical indications and the Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI) to expand mutual and reciprocal market access. Xi Jinping stated that the parties "should uphold this spirit, view each other's differences in a correct way, rationally handle divergences, and ensure ties between the two sides move forward."
The summit comes despite a litany of articles in the mainstream media and think tank-induced narratives that have sought to depict a deterioration in China-EU relations, not least as the Biden administration has sought to build anti-China coalitions with European nations. Despite the conflicting positions between China and the EU countries on human rights, the reality remains that China-EU relations are not a zero-sum game and continue to be driven on both sides by principles of diplomacy, multilateralism and engagement.
Europe cannot afford to negate its relationship with China or turn away the benefits of the Chinese market. When the CAI was agreed in principle in 2020, the United States sought to undermine it, demanding a "unified approach amongst allies" as well as pushing a plethora of journalists, activists and think-tankers to oppose it, misleadingly presenting it as a "concession" to Beijing than a win for European businesses.
Read More at https://news.cgtn.com/news/2021-07-06/No-one-should-write-off-China-EU-relationship-11FSrEXDGBG/index.html
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