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EU China meetings deemed a great success
On January 30 upon the invitation of the president of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, meetings were held between the Commission and a Chinese delegation led by the Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao . The overall EU-China relations, the international financial crisis and climate change were subjects of discussion, and nine agreements were signed on this occasion with a goal of enhancing mutual cooperation in several fields were signed.
President Barroso and Premier Wen reiterated their support for the High Level dialogue on economy and trade and settled on the date of the second round to be held in April. Intending to fulfill the commitment to keep markets open, consultative talks on Doha round as well as Macroeconomic Dialogue were stressed as the next tasks to be further developed.
Commissioner for Trade, Catherine Ashton, who took part in talks, commented: "Getting our relationship right requires a lot of hard work, but the rewards more than justify the effort. EU-China trade must continue to be a motor for the world economy in these difficult times. Our leadership is needed especially to complete the Doha Round. We should step up our cooperation to find new opportunities for trade and investment, for instance in green technologies. I am looking forward to exploring this at the next meeting of the EU-China High Level Economic and Trade Dialogue Mechanism."
The Chinese visit was the return trip to the visit to Beijing of President Barroso on April 24-25, 2008 which gave a high-level impulse to bilateral cooperation within the strategic partnership framework.
During the official lunch following the main meeting discussion concentrated on climate change, stating the year 2009 to be crucial to achieve a complex post-2012 agreement at the UN Conference in Copenhagen in December. The European Union and China play the principal role in this process and therefore should take a leadership so that the objective could be successfully achieved.
Premier Wen and President Barroso emphasised the importance of the XI EU-China Summit, which is to be convened as soon as possible under Czech Presidency of the EU. This was confirmed later by Czech Prime Minister Topolanek at the official lunch opening the way to another Summit to take place in China in 2009.
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