China, Belgium pledge to expand common interests, advance ties

Chinese Premier Li Qiang holds a welcoming ceremony for Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo in the Northern Hall of the Great Hall of the People prior to their talks in Beijing, capital of China, Jan. 12, 2024. Li held talks with visiting Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo in Beijing on Friday. (Xinhua/Shen Hong)

Chinese Premier Li Qiang on Friday held talks with visiting Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo. Both sides agreed to expand common interests and push bilateral ties to a new level.

Li noted that it has been 10 years since China and Belgium upgraded their relations to a comprehensive, friendly, cooperative partnership. He said that ties have been moving forward steadily, and cooperation in various fields has continued to expand, bringing tangible benefits to the two peoples.

China stands ready to work with Belgium to practice mutual respect, achieve mutual benefits and win-win results, be open and inclusive, strengthen strategic communication, build political mutual trust and tap into cooperation potential, aiming to inject more impetus into the common development of the two countries, Li said.

He said China is willing to consolidate and expand trade with Belgium, deepen logistics and port cooperation, and actively promote the development of cross-border e-commerce.

China welcomes more Belgian enterprises to invest in China, and supports more Chinese enterprises to invest in Belgium, Li said. And China hopes that Belgium will uphold the value of openness, follow market principles and provide a fair, transparent and non-discriminatory business environment for Chinese companies.

The premier called on both sides to strengthen exchanges and cooperation in the field of scientific and technological innovation, giving full play to their complementary advantages. He also called on the two countries to deepen cooperation on environmental protection, modern agriculture, biomedicine, civil nuclear energy and artificial intelligence, and to strengthen cultural, educational and youth exchanges.

De Croo noted that Belgium and China are partners, and that economic and trade cooperation between the two countries has been developing rapidly. He said that high-quality dialogues and consultations have been conducted, and the two sides have shared the same goals on climate change and other global issues.

He said that Belgium adheres to the one-China policy, is willing to deepen cultural and people-to-people exchanges with China, and is willing to strengthen bilateral cooperation in fields such as agriculture, food, nuclear energy and communication technology.

As the current holder of the rotating EU presidency, Belgium supports the further development of EU-China relations, De Croo added.

After the talks, Li and De Croo witnessed the signature of a number of bilateral cooperation documents on the economy, trade, agriculture and food.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with Belgian Minister of Foreign Affairs Hadja Lahbib on the same day.

Lahbib said that Belgium does not support Taiwan independence, and that it looks forward to developing stable and constructive bilateral relations, deepening high-quality cooperation and strengthening people-to-people exchanges with China.

She said that Belgium hopes economic and trade relations with China will become more balanced, and that more European companies will enter the Chinese market.

Wang, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, stressed that China will adhere to a path of peaceful development, high-quality development and high-level opening-up.

Protectionism has no future, and the generalization of "de-risking" will only lead to greater risks, Wang said.

China is committed to building a market-oriented, law-based and internationalized business environment, he said, and it stands ready to strengthen cooperation on green development and climate change with European countries.