On 6 September 2012, the ceremony marking the establishment of the Secretariat for Cooperation between China and Central and Eastern European Countries and its first national coordinators' meeting was held in Beijing. After the meeting, Song Tao, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs and Secretary-General of the Secretariat gave a joint interview to Chinese media organizations which covered, among other issues, strengthening cooperation between China and the central and east European countries.
2012, Premier Wen Jiabao and leaders of 16 central and east European countries met in Warsaw, Poland and reached broad consensus on strengthening cooperation between China and Central and Easten European Countries. The 12 measures proposed by Premier Wen for boosting the cooperation received warm response from the Central and Easten European Countries. People are interested to know why China wants stronger cooperation with the Central and Easten European Countries.
Song Tao: China and Central and Easten European Countries have long enjoyed profound traditional friendship and sound political relations, and in recent years, seen strong momentum of growth in business, trade and other areas of practical cooperation. But the Central and Easten European Countries are still far behind the developed EU members in terms of cooperation with China. Despite a combined area of around 1.3 million square kilometers and a total population of 123 million, the 16 Central and Easten European Countries are about the size of Italy in terms of trade with China, which is only US$50 billion. They attract less Chinese investment than Sweden alone and invest less in China than Austria. By coming up with the 12 initiatives, China simply wants to promote cooperation with these countries. We hope that with these measures charting the course, firing up the enthusiasm and facilitating the expansion of cooperation, our cooperation with the Central and Easten European Countries in various fields will scale up a new height and the cooperation between China and the EU as a whole will be upgraded.
People's Daily: It has been four months since the Warsaw meeting. How are things going with the 12 measures?
Song Tao: Since the Warsaw meeting, China and Central and Easten European Countries have been working closely to follow through on the proposed measures and advance cooperation in various fields with solid steps. Our work has produced initial results.
As we have just witnessed, the first one of the 12 measures has been materialized, with the establishment of the Secretariat by the Chinese side, and the Central and Easten European Countries have appointed national coordinators or designated agencies to establish contacts with the Secretariat seated in China. The working network for cooperation is up and running. Another measure of greatest interest to all parties, the US$10 billion special credit line, is put into use. At the ceremony marking the establishment of the Secretariat, enterprises from the two sides signed a number of agreements based on this credit line. Apparently, cooperation between China and Central and Easten European Countries has got off to a good start.
China News: The Secretariat is officially established today. As the first Secretary-General, what is your view on the prospects of cooperation between China and Central and Easten European countries? What role will the Secretariat play?
Song Tao: China and Central and Easten European countries enjoy profound traditional friendship and political mutual trust. We all hope that good political relations will soon yield real cooperation results. At the same time, China and Central and Easten European Countries have a lot to offer each other in various fields. Currently, the Central and Easten European countries are working hard to increase export, attract foreign investment and grow their economies so as to get over the negative impact of the international financial crisis and the European debt crisis. China, on its part, is sparing no effort to shift its growth model, boost domestic demand, diversify export markets and encourage Chinese companies to go global. All these have created more opportunities of cooperation between China and Central and Easten European Countries. With our strong desire and matching needs for cooperation, we have reason to believe that our joint efforts will surely lead to ever expanding cooperation, development in our respective countries and win-win results for both sides.
The Secretariat is a special agency established to promote cooperation between China and Central and east European Countries. Through internal and external coordination, the Secretariat will work to facilitate the implementation of the outcomes of meetings between leaders of China and Central and Easten European Countries, plan for cooperation initiatives in accordance with the latest development and serve as a bond of cooperation through resources mobilization and integration.
CNTV: How do you comment on the role of the cooperation between China and Central and Easten European Countries in China-EU relations?
Song Tao: Central and eastern Europe is a part of Europe, and China respects the choice of the Central and Easten European Countries to be involved in European integration. China's cooperation with the Central and Easten European Countries is without doubt a part of China-EU relations, and its expansion will help elevate the scale and quality of China-EU cooperation and promote more comprehensive and balanced growth of China-EU relationship.
(2012-9-7 The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China )