Brussels, 13/07/2016 (Agence Europe) - As with their differing viewpoints on the thorny issue of the territorial disputes involving China in the South China Sea, the EU and China had difficulty in progressing towards a common understanding on international political issues and global challenges when they attended the EU-China bilateral summit in Beijing on Tuesday 12 and Wednesday 13 July.
“We came here to discuss common challenges in an open and friendly manner. It is not always easy to have such talks because the stakes are high and real differences persist. But after these two days I can say that we made progress and we did it also thanks to the openness and frank approach by both President Xi and Premier Li. We had a good summit”, European Council President Donald Tusk said at the end of their work.
“We discussed the importance of international cooperation based on rules. A global order based on common rules is in our mutual interest but clearly we have our differences in what it means in practice”, he said.
On Wednesday, Tusk reaffirmed the EU's full confidence in the ruling of the Arbitration Court in The Hague on the territorial dispute between China and the Philippines in the South China Sea. The ruling concluded that China did not have historical rights justifying its claims to sovereignty in the South China Sea. Tusk also said that the EU would continue to speak out in favour of international law.
China warned on Wednesday that it would take all the measures needed to protect its sovereignty in the South China Sea, and it did not rule out setting up an air defence zone.
The bilateral summit in Beijing also enabled progress to be made on the EU-China strategic partnership. The leaders of both sides provided political guidelines to conclude negotiations on a bilateral investment agreement (EUROPE 11587), and signed a roadmap for an energy partnership (EUROPE 11584).
In addition, the European and Chinese leaders also agreed to hold another EU-China dialogue session on human rights before the end of the year. “There is no doubt that there are disagreements on this issue. But I welcome that China stands ready to engage”, Tusk said.
Ahead of the G20 summit in Hangzhou, the European and Chinese leaders agreed to fight the migration crisis at global level.
The EU also expressed its desire to cooperate closely with China on priority foreign policy issues, including Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and Africa, and on global challenges such as development aid and fighting climate change. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)