On May 20, 2009, Premier Wen Jiabao of the State Council of China attended the 11th China-EU Summit in Prague, capital of the Czech Republic. After the summit, Mr. Yang Jiechi, Minister of Foreign Affairs of China, who is a member of the delegation headed by Premier Wen, briefed the accompanying reporters on the summit on the way back to China.

“Currently, the international situation is undergoing complex and profound changes, with the world financial crisis going deeper and spreading to more places, common challenges presented to our globe, such as climate change and energy security, getting increasingly daunting. Against such a backdrop, China-EU relations are presented with new opportunities and challenges, calling for enhanced coordination and cooperation between the two sides, which is in dire need at present. For a reason that we all know, this summit, originally slated for the end of last year, didn’t become a reality at that time. And during Premier Wen’s visit to Europe early this year, leaders of both sides agreed to resume the summit at the earliest date possible”, said Yang on the background of the summit.

Yang pointed that despite the many urgent tasks to take care of in China, particularly those as daunting as the prevention and control of A/H1N1 flu, Premier Wen still decided to attend the summit held in the Czech Republic in person as scheduled. The schedules for the flight and the summit were both tight, requiring going to and back from the Czech Republic on the same day with 20 hours of flight and only 5 hours of stay in the country. This has fully testified the great value China sees in China-EU relations, the actions taken to promote their development and the pragmatic and efficient work style of Premier Wen. Just as Premier Wen put it himself, “I am attending the summit with sincerity, responsibilities and confidence.”

According to Yang, leaders of both sides had an in-depth and all-round exchange of views on China-EU relations during the summit. When jointly meeting with journalists after the summit, Premier Wen delivered a speech that is not only forward-looking but also open and practical. It is indeed one that has fully expounded the essence of China-EU relations. The EU side also attaches great importance to this event. Led by President Barroso of the European Commission, many EU commissioners attended the summit. And the Czech Republic, the rotating presidency of the EU, had made tremendous preparations, as a result of which, the summit was tight, smooth and successful. The EU side has spoken highly of the summit, calling it “informative, friendly and fruitful”. The international community also followed this event closely, and is of the view that China and the EU are strengthening cooperation in a bid to tackle common challenges, such as the global financial crisis and climate change, with concerted efforts.

First, the summit has boosted mutual political trust and shed light on the future direction of China-EU ties.

Premier Wen illustrated the great significance of developing China-EU relations to both sides and the world at large. He noted that the establishment and development of the China-EU comprehensive strategic partnership carries the mutually beneficial cooperation between the biggest developing country and the biggest bloc of developed countries, and embodies the friendly exchanges between the two major ancient civilizations. The summit is a frank dialogue between countries with different social systems, which conforms to the historical trend, meets the requirement of the advancing of the times, and benefits the Chinese and European people and the international community as a whole. In a complex and ever-changing international context, both sides should foster confidence, deepen cooperation and realize the common and harmonious development of China and Europe, which is fundamentally helpful to the world's harmony and sustainable development.

Premier Wen further defined the fundamental positioning of China-EU relations, stressing that the core of China-EU ties lies in their strategic importance, the cooperation should be comprehensive, and the key to the development of the partnership is to advance with the times. China and the EU should stick to this basic positioning of the strategic partnership. “Strategic” means the two sides should view their relationship from a forward-looking, strategic perspective, not to let it be affected by a certain time period or a certain incident. “Comprehensive” implies the two sides should enhance cooperation in all fields. “Partnership” entails mutual respect, mutual benefit, equality and accommodation of the major concerns of both sides.

Premier Wen emphasized that China and the EU should view and treat each other’s development from a positive and objective perspective. He said that China has always welcomed and supported the integration process of the EU. China remains a developing country. It sticks to the independent foreign policy of peace, and follows the strategy of opening up for mutual benefit and win-win cooperation. It stands ready to develop friendly and cooperative relations with all countries and will never seek hegemony. China is more than ready to be a good friend and a good partner of the EU’s so as to promote common development with harmony and bring about a win-win situation through cooperation.

The EU side agreed that EU-China relations are strategic and comprehensive indeed, saying that EU is committed to deepening the EU-China comprehensive strategic partnership and ready to enhance dialogue and cooperation with China in an effort to jointly address various global issues and challenges. EU is willing to look at the issue of market economy status of China from a fair and objective perspective, and has the political will to resolve the issue of arms embargo on China. EU attaches great importance to the positive and constructive role of China in the international arena and believes that China will make even greater contributions to world peace and stability.

Second, the summit enhanced practical cooperation and acted as a catalyst for the two sides to joint hands in coping with global challenges.

Premier Wen pointed out that expanding practical cooperation is the major point of China-EU relations. The two sides should give full play to mechanisms such as the China-EU Summit and the China-EU High-level Economic and Trade Dialogue (HED) to guide and push forward exchanges and cooperation in all fields. The legal framework of China-EU cooperation should be further improved so that cooperation in the various fields of politics, economy, trade, science, technology, culture and education is more coordinated, balanced and interactive with each other. EU expressed the willingness to bring closer the bilateral relations through dialogue mechanisms between the two sides and accelerate the negotiations of the EU-China partnership agreement.

To work along to address the international financial crisis together is the key area of current China-EU cooperation. China’s attitude towards enhanced economic and trade cooperation between the two sides is earnest and the actions taken to that end have been down to earth. Premier Wen noted that China and the EU are two major economies of the world and important trading partners of each other. The two sides must make concerted efforts to tide over the difficult times together, and make contributions to the early recovery of the world economy. Both sides agreed to take the lead in resisting and rejecting trade protectionism of all forms. China will send another procurement delegation to Europe in the near future. The two sides also expressed desire to further promote mutual investment and strengthen cooperation in the fields of SMEs, trade facilitation, science and technology, transportation, and postal services, and agreed to enhance dialogue in macro-economic policies and the financial field in a bid to boost the reform of the international financial system.

During the summit, competent authorities of the two parties signed cooperative agreements including the Joint Statement on China-Europe Clean Energy Center, China-EU SMEs Cooperation Point of Consensus, and China-EU Science and Technology Partnership Scheme, which further embodied the will of both sides and the concrete actions taken to jointly tackle the financial crisis, and laid the foundation for future cooperation in those fields.

In view of the EU concerns over climate change, Premier Wen made a comprehensive introduction regarding China’s policies and views on energy saving and emission reduction and the positive results yielded thereby, stressing that the two sides should stick to the principle of “common but differentiated responsibilities”, push forward the comprehensive, effective and sustained implementation of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol, and work together for a positive result to come out of the Copenhagen Conference slated for the end of the year. EU said that it has taken note of the positive results of Chinese policies and measures, China’s efforts are going in the right direction, and EU is willing to cooperate with China.

The two sides also exchanged views on international and regional hotspot issues, agreeing to enhance coordination and cooperation in international affairs.

Third, the summit has deepened the traditional friendship and promoted the development of the friendly and cooperative ties between China and the Czech Republic.

During his stay, Premier Wen met with Czech President Vaclav Klaus and its interim Prime Minister Jan Fischer to refresh their friendship and discuss cooperation matters. Premier Wen said that the Czech Republic, like many other Middle and Eastern European countries, was among the first countries to establish diplomatic ties with the People’s Republic of China. Sino-Czech relations enjoy a very good foundation. Over the past six decades since the establishment of the diplomatic ties, friendship and cooperation has always been the mainstream of the bilateral relations. The Chinese government attaches great importance to relations with the Czech Republic, and cherishes the traditional friendship between the two nations. Taking the opportunity of the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties, China is more than ready to work with the Czech Republic to boost mutual political trust, expand trade and mutual investment, enhance cooperation in science, technology and environmental protection, promote non-governmental exchanges, and have closer communication and coordination in international affairs so as to elevate Sino-Czech ties to a higher level.

Leaders of the Czech Republic agreed to Premier Wen’s comments on the bilateral relations and his cooperation proposals, saying that the Czech Republic regards China as an important partner, and stands ready to enhance exchanges and cooperation with China on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties, so as to cope with the international financial crisis with concerted efforts and foster greater development of the bilateral relations in the changed situation.

Finally, Yang summed up by saying that this summit has been productive, sending a positive message to the public that China and the EU will overcome the difficulties, build on what has been built, and maintain the sustained and steady development of China-EU relations. Both China and the EU are important forces in the international arena. Amid the times when multi-polarization is going deeper and global problems and challenges are ever-increasing, enhanced China-EU cooperation conforms to the general trend and the common aspirations of the people. We have full confidence in the furthering of the China-EU comprehensive strategic partnership.