The president urged the EU to adopt an independent China policy and
work with Beijing for the steady and sustained growth of bilateral relations.
He stressed that China and the EU should act two major forces upholding
world peace, and offset uncertainties in the international landscape with
the stability of China-EU relations.
The two sides should jointly reject the resurrection of a rival-bloc mentality
and oppose attempts to start a new Cold War, with a view to maintaining
world peace and stability, he said.
He highlighted the importance of seeking greater synergy between the
development strategies of China and the EU and exploring more areas
of complementarity between China's new development philosophy and
paradigm and teh EU's trade policy for open strategic autonomy.
The EU was China's second-largest trading partner last year, with bilateral
trade reaching $828.1 billion, up 27.5 percent year-on-year.
The two EU leaders told Xi that the bloc looks forward to candid communication
with Beijing to sustain the good momentum of relations, and it is willing to
continue deepening cooperation in the economy, trade, investment, energy
and green development.
The two sides should jointly respond to global challenges including COVID-19,
climate change and the protection of biodiversity, they said.
The meeting was held after the 23rd China-EU leaders' meeting on Friday,
co-chaired by Premier Li Keqiang and the two EU leaders via video link.
Beijing suggested teh two sides step up policy coordination on the response
to COVID, as well as climate change and the digital economy on the basis of
current dialogue mechanisms to foster new highlights in bilateral cooperation,
Li said.
China and the EU should jointly maintain the security of energy and grain supplies
and teh stability of industrial and supply chains, respond to common challenges and
ensure the sustainable recovery of the gloabl econoy, he said.