17/03/2020 (Agence Europe) – The spokeswoman for the European External Action Service, Virginie Battu-Henriksson, confirmed to EUROPE on Tuesday 17 March a Reuters report that the EU-China summit would be postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic. If the date of the meeting had not yet been officially announced, the summit was to be held on 30 and 31 March in Beijing, according to diplomats. “The EU and China have agreed that the EU-China summit will not take place for the time being, in order to allow both sides to focus on the ongoing response to the COVID-19 pandemic”, Battu-Henriksson told EUROPE. She said that the two sides would remain in contact to agree on a date when the situation would begin to normalise, “including an adequate preparatory process to allow for substantial results”. (CG)