20th EU-China Summit

EU-China

Rome [ENA] H.E. Li Keqiang, Premier of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China, H.E. Donald Tusk, President of the European Council, and H.E. Jean-Claude Juncker, President of the European Commission, met in Beijing on 16 July 2018 for the 20th EU-China Summit. Premier Li and President Juncker jointly attended the EU-China Business Roundtable. During the 20th EU-China Summit, the two

parties celebrated the 15th anniversary of the EU-China Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. This has significantly boosted the level of EU-China relations, with prolific results achieved in politics, economy, trade, culture, people-to-people exchanges and other fields. The Leaders reiterated their commitment to expanding their partnership for peace, growth, reform and civilisation, based on the principles of mutual respect, trust, equality and mutual benefit, by comprehensively implementing the EU-China 2020 Strategic Agenda for Cooperation. As comprehensive strategic partners, the EU and China intend to strengthen the global dimension of their partnership in order to promote peace, security and sustainable development.

Mogherini and Li Keqiang

Both sides reaffirmed their commitment to multilateralism and the rules-based international order with the United Nations at its core, and to support the UN Charter and international law, including the principles of sovereignty, territorial integrity and inviolability of borders. The EU and China declared they are committed to defending all three pillars of the UN system, namely peace and security, development, and human rights, and are committed to the peaceful settlement of international disputes in accordance with the principles of international law. Dialogue and cooperation on foreign and security policy to meet common challenges continue to be important pillars of the EU-China Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.

The EU reaffirmed its one-China policy. After the successful outcomes of the 8th EU-China High Level Strategic Dialogue, the two partners agreed to continue to reinforce their consultations on foreign policy and security matters, including exchanges on Africa, the Middle East, Asia, Central Asia and Latin America, as well as disarmament and non-proliferation. The EU and China support the efforts to find a peaceful solution to the question of the Korean Peninsula. Since the beginning of the year, the situation on the Korean Peninsula has significantly improved. The two sides welcomed the commitments made at the US-DPRK and inter-Korean summits, including the commitment to complete denuclearisation, and called upon all

parties scrupulously to implement the relevant UN Security Council resolutions. China, the EU and its Member States are parties to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and respect the maritime order based on international law. The EU welcomed the continuing consultations between China and ASEAN countries aimed at the conclusion of an effective Code of Conduct (CoC) for the South China Sea. The EU and China also invited all relevant parties to engage in dialogue, to settle disputes peacefully, and to refrain from actions likely to increase tensions.

The EU and China seem to be motivated to maintain high-level exchanges on security and defence policy, strengthen their communication and facilitate cooperation through policy dialogue mechanisms, actively promote training and seminars for personnel, and maintain the momentum of cooperation in such areas as anti-piracy escort missions and international peacekeeping. Since China's president Xi Jinping came to power in 2012, China has undergone significant changes: a massive centralization of presidential power, reforms that restructure the country's military capabilities and growing attention to regional security. In fact, the People's Liberation Army implemented its strategies in IT operations and cybersecurity.

The EU and China agreed to conduct exchanges on human rights at the bilateral and international level on the basis of equality and mutual respect, including in the context of UN human rights mechanisms. Both sides welcomed the holding of their Human Rights Dialogue in China in July. Fostering an open world economy, improving trade and investment liberalisation and facilitation, resisting protectionism and unilateralism, and making globalisation more open, balanced, inclusive, and beneficial to all is another relevant commitment of the 20th EU-China Summit.

Both sides firmly supported the rules-based, transparent, non-discriminatory, open and inclusive multilateral trading system with the WTO as its core and are committed to complying with existing WTO rules. They are also committed to cooperating on the reform of the WTO to help it meet new challenges and establish a joint working group on WTO reform, chaired at Vice-Ministerial level, to this end. The two sides moreover recognized the important role that the High-Level Economic and Trade Dialogue has played in guiding and promoting the development of EU-China economic and trade relations.

The EU took note of China’s recent commitments to increasing market access and the investment environment, strengthening intellectual property rights and expanding imports, and looks forward to their full implementation as well as further measures. The promotion of mutual understanding and the sharing of experience on international development cooperation through enhanced exchanges, and joint efforts to implement the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda have been pertinent issues.

Last but not least, the two sides agreed to hold the fourth review meeting of the EU-China 2020 Strategic Agenda for Cooperation in Brussels in 2019 and committed to starting discussions on a new cooperation agenda to expand and deepen exchanges and cooperation between the the two parties beyond 2020.