China and the European Union should enhance mutual trust and stick to cooperation to elevate their ties to “a new level”, Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Wednesday amid widening trade tensions.
In a meeting with EU diplomatic envoys in Beijing, Wang said that China and the EU “have both the responsibility and capability to provide much-needed stability and predictability to a world fraught with turbulence”, according to a Chinese foreign ministry readout.
“Both sides should enhance mutual trust, properly manage differences, pool strengths, and elevate the comprehensive strategic partnership to a new level,” Wang said.
EU leaders will travel to China for the summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing to mark 50 years of diplomatic ties. It will be the second successive EU-China summit in the Chinese capital, despite convention dictating that the location rotates.
This month, China and the EU agreed to hold a new round of trade talks to pave the way for the high-level leaders’ summit, with the two sides in deep dispute over market access, rare earths and electric cars.
