12th China-EU summit begins in Nanjing
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The 12th China-EU summit was held in Nanjing, capital of east China's Jiangsu Province, on Monday.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, European Commission President Barroso and Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, whose country currently holds the rotating EU presidency, co-chaired the one-day meeting.
The two sides exchanged views on bilateral relations and major international affairs, and they agreed to deepen the comprehensive strategic partnership to face the global challenge.
Wen expressed his congratulation on the Treaty of Lisbon, equivalent to the "EU's Constitution," for its upcoming taking into effect on Dec. 1 as scheduled. He also said he hopes the integration process could continuously make new progress and have a positive effect on the China-EU relations.
He said China and the EU, as the largest developing country and the largest group of developed countries, should not only make joint efforts in coping with global financial crisis and overcoming the difficulties, but also should stand high and see far in shaping the future, in a bid to promote the establishment of a just and rational international political and economic new order.
He said China and the EU should carry out frank and in-depth dialogue on major issues and conduct comprehensive cooperation, which conforms to the fundamental interests of the two sides and the whole world.
He called on the two sides to abandon discrimination, confrontation and containment and promote equality, dialogue and cooperation.
He said the two sides should enhance mutual trust, and always be friends but not opponents, should take a cleat-cut stand against hegemony and promote a multipolar world and support multilateralism, should take development as the primary task and follow the path of mutual benefits,win-win results and common development, should respect each other's cultural tradition, social system and values with the spirit of openness, and achieve innovation and progress in learning from each other, should dedicate themselves to resolving the deep-seated structural problems in the international relations and promoting the world harmony and sustainable development.
"Those should be the strategic direction that guides the China-EU relations," he stressed.
Wen said China and the EU should continuously improve the dialogue mechanism, innovate the means of cooperation, enrich the content of cooperation, so as to inject new vitality to the China-EU relations.
He called for guiding the direction of China-EU relations through the mechanism of the China-EU summit and accelerating negotiations on China-EU partnership cooperation agreement to establish a legal framework for comprehensive cooperation.
The two sides should encourage and support mutual investment, enhance cooperation in such areas as intellectual property protection, facilitation of trade and investment and cooperation among small and medium-sized enterprises, he said.
He called for properly handling trade frictions and abandoning trade protectionism.
He said that the two sides should expand cooperation in the fields of energy-saving, emissions cut, the development of renewable energy and the exploitation and utilization of clean coal and coalbed methane.
He suggested next year, the two sides hold the first China-EU Cultural Summit Forum and the China-EU Intangible Cultural Heritage Exhibition and Symposium, and beef up exchanges among youth and cooperation among localities.
Wen said that China and the EU should enhance coordination on macro-economic policies and financial supervision, push for the fulfillment of the millennium goals and work for the comprehensive recovery of world economy and sustainable development.
The EU side said the EU attaches great importance to the development of China, and to develop a comprehensive partnership with China is a great decision that the EU has made.
The EU side said it hopes to enhance high-level contact and all-level dialogue with China and enhance cooperation in all fields.
On the issue of climate change, Wen said "China has taken a series of measures to deal with climate change, which has brought about remarkable effects."
The Chinese government announced last week that it would cut emissions per unit of gross domestic product by between 40 and 45 percent from the 2005 levels by 2020.
"We'll steadfastly adhere to the road of sustainable development," said Wen, who will attend the climate summit in Copenhagen next month.
Wen said China attaches great importance to the upcoming Copenhagen Conference and would like to work with various parties to push the conference in the right direction.
All the countries should follow the principle of "common but differentiated responsibilities", and adherence to the principle is crucial for the success of the upcoming Copenhagen conference on climate change, said Wen.
China hopes the EU could be a good example of developed countries in this regard, by massively cutting emissions, he said.
The EU admits the historical responsibilities of developed countries on issues of climate changes, according to the EU side.
The EU will continue to stick to the principle of "common but differentiated responsibilities", the EU side said, adding it will enhance exchanges and cooperation with China to push for positive results of the Copenhagen conference.
The EU side said it welcomes the measures that the Chinese government has made and will maintain contact with China to strive for positive results from the Copenhagen climate summit.
Leaders from the two sides also witnessed the signing of cooperation documents on science and technology, energy saving and emissions cut, trade and investment and environmental treatment.
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