China hopes upcoming China-EU summit promote strategic mutual trust

BEIJING, Nov. 24 -- China hopes the upcoming China-EU summit will promote strategic mutual trust, said Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Zhijun on Tuesday.

Zhang said, the summit to be held on Nov. 30 in the eastern Chinese city of Nanjing is the highest level of dialogue mechanism between the two sides, and it has a unique and leading role in the development of China-EU relations.

At the invitation of Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, European Commission President Jos Manuel Barroso, Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, whose country currently holds the rotating EU presidency, and EU High Representative Javier Solana will attend the summit. Both sides will exchange views on bilateral relations, global financial crisis and climate change.

Zhang said China hopes the summit will actively enhance strategic mutual trust and both sides will be more determined to support each other's choice of path of development.

China also hopes the two sides will make a general blueprint for the dialogue and cooperation in various fields and show the world their cooperation on global issues including trade protectionism and climate change, Zhang added.

China and EU have common or similar views on major international issues such as upholding multilateralism and promoting world peace and stability. They enjoy a sound basis of cooperation on promoting reform of international financial system and coping with climate change, Zhang said.

According to the Foreign Ministry, Chinese and EU leaders will attend the signing ceremonies of a series of agreements on science and technology, economic and trade, environment protection and industry, and hold a press conference after the summit.

The upcoming 12th China-EU summit is the second of its kind in 2009 as the first one was held in May, and it is also the third time for the leaders to meet in 2009 since Wen visited Europe at the beginning of this year.