Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said at an annual China-EU summit
Wednesday afternoon that China will continue to expand market
access to foreign countries in accordance with prevailing
international economic and trade rules.
Wen jointly held the 10th China-EU Leaders' Meeting with Prime
Minister Jose Socrates of Portugal, which currently holds the
European Union (EU)'s rotating presidency, and European Commission
President Jose Manuel Durao Barroso.
Wen said in one of his four proposals on further developing
China-EU relations that the two sides should improve the structure
of trade, expand trade volume and properly handle the problems in
bilateral trade.
He proposed to maintain close high-level contacts and have
prompt exchanges on bilateral and global issues, making full use of
the current dialogue mechanism.
He said the two sides should speed up negotiations on a new
Partnership and Cooperation Agreement, which was started last
January and aimed at replacing the outdated 1985 Trade and Economic
Cooperation Agreement.
Wen also proposed to make common working plan on China-EU
science-technology cooperation and sign educational exchange and
cooperation agreement as soon as possible, implement the working
plan on cultural dialogue and cooperation, and strengthen practical
cooperation in the fields of climate change, energy and
environmental protection.
Wen stressed that the China-EU relationship is now at a new
important period of development, and the multi-polarization and
globalization have brought more opportunities than challenges for
such relationship.
"We are ready to make joint efforts with the EU side to seize
the opportunities and raise the level of China-EU comprehensive
strategic partnership," said Wen.
The premier said over the past decade the China-EU ties have
witnessed the fastest development in history and mutually
beneficial cooperation has produced rich results. The ties now have
reached an unprecedented level in width and depth, he added.
Wen said the main experience for the relationship's development
is that the two sides have attached great importance to it, and
treat and develop it from a strategic level and a long-term
perspective.
Meanwhile, both China and the EU regard the other's development
as an opportunity instead of a threat, establish and improve a set
of dialogue and consultation mechanism, and reach consensus on
properly solving differences through the equal dialogue and
friendly consultation mechanism, he added.
Socrates said the EU-China strategic partnership benefits
Europe, China and the world. China is the EU's global trade
partner, and the EU appreciates China's active role in solving the
nuclear issue of the Korean Peninsula, the Iranian nuclear issue
and other major international and regional issues, he added.
Barroso also said the EU hopes to continuously add momentum to
the EU-China dialogue mechanism, and solve the issues of common
concern by joint efforts.
The two European leaders said the EU adheres to the one-China
policy and doesn't support Taiwan's proposed "referendum on UN
membership", which they said is an action to change Taiwan's status
quo.
(Xinhua News Agency November 29, 2007)
