The establishment of Sino-European strategic partnership relations indicates that bilateral relationship has entered a new era, experts said in Beijing Wednesday.  

At an international symposium on Sino-US-European Relations, Ioan Gavril Ghitas, deputy chief of the General Staff of the Romanian armed forces, said the recently published policy document by China and the European Union and the just concluded China-EU leaders' summit mark a beginning of a new era in the history of this partnership.

He said that in a time characterized by the increase of interdependency among the key actors of the international system, the good results from this strategic relationship could transcend the differences between the political systems in China and Europe.

Song Mingjiang, president of the China Institute of International Studies, said the Sino-EU leaders' summit gained fruitful results, marking that bilateral relations had stepped from a comprehensive partnership to comprehensive strategic partnership.

Shireen Mazari, director general of the Institute of Strategic Studies of Pakistan, said relations which were once limited primarily to the areas of trade and investment, along with financial and technical assistance, have now expanded to cover a multitude of areas such as political, culture, education and international affairs.

Therefore, she said, it has been a natural development for the EU and China to establish a more extensive cooperative framework.

Song said that in the recent years, China has played an increasingly important role in international affairs and the emerging of the EU is attractive. Along with these changes, common interests and consensus between China and the EU have increased and become the glue of bilateral relations.

Sino-European relations are based on maintaining global peace and enhancing common development, said Song.

Co-sponsored by the China Society for International Strategic Studies and the Hotung Institute for International Relations, the three-day symposium opened Tuesday. About 150 experts and scholars from 15 nations attended the meeting.

(Xinhua News Agency November 20, 2003)