Chinas’ President Xi Jinping met with Alexander De Croo, the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Belgium, on Friday in Beijing.

Xi stated that since the two peoples’ diplomatic connections were established 53 years ago, bilateral cooperation has produced positive outcomes and benefited both, highlighting how much emphasis China places on the growth of China-Belgium relations.

According to Xi, China and Belgium both gain from economic globalization and have a mutual interest in preserving free trade and opposing protectionism.

De Croo’s administration is currently in charge of the rotating six-month European Union presidency. Xi urged De Croo to “play a positive role” in “fostering progress in China-EU relations in the New Year.”

China welcomes the investment from Belgium

In his remarks, Xi expressed his hope that Belgium would likewise offer a fair, transparent, and non-discriminatory business environment for Chinese companies. China appreciates De Croo’s frequent and vocal opposition to the decoupling or severing of industrial and supply chains. China also welcomes Belgian companies to invest in China and stands ready to provide them with a sound business environment.

According to Xi, the two parties may pool their forces to further cooperation in established fields like biopharmaceuticals, logistics, and transportation as well as to investigate emerging fields like the digital economy and green development.

He urged the two sides to support government agencies, legislatures, and subnational regions in their efforts to promote conversation and exchanges, increase travel and student exchanges, plan large-scale cultural events in each other’s nations, and do research on the protection of giant pandas.

According to Xi, China is eager to cooperate with Belgium to promote collaboration on topics like biodiversity preservation and climate change as well as to enhance communication within multilateral organizations like the UN.

China and EU Ties via Belgium

China has always seen Europe as a partner and expects that Europe will play a positive and constructive role as an important force in a multipolar world, according to Xi, who emphasized China’s long-term constancy in its policy toward Europe.

More “bridges” between China and Europe are needed in light of the unstable and shifting global environment, he continued.

According to Xi, the two parties should collaborate more in order to advance equitable and well-ordered global multipolarity, globalization of the economy for everyone’s benefit, and global peace, stability, and prosperity.

China hopes that Belgium, which is currently holding the rotating EU presidency, will have a beneficial impact on the advancement of China-EU ties in the New Year and is willing to collaborate with the EU to achieve this goal, Xi added.

De Croo noted that Belgium will continue to uphold the one-China policy and engage in open communication with China in order to foster mutual understanding and advance the ongoing advancement of bilateral relations in political, economic, and other domains. He said that Belgium-China ties set the standard for European nations’ relations with China in many ways.

According to De Croo, in light of the unstable and dynamic global environment, the world needs China and Europe to collaborate and deepen their cooperation in a number of areas, including combating climate change, fostering global economic growth, and creating a more stable global order.

He continued by saying that Belgium, which currently holds the rotating EU chair, is eager to contribute actively to the improvement of EU-China relations and expects that this visit would contribute to strengthening ties between the two countries.

“Belgium welcomes Chinese companies to collaborate in Belgium, opposes ‘decoupling and breaking links,’ and hopes to strengthen personnel exchanges and cultural exchanges with China,” Croo stated.

He added that the world needs China and Europe to work together as partners and strengthen cooperation in a wide range of areas such as promoting world economic growth, coping with climate change, and building a more stable world.

Earlier, De Croo also held a bilateral meeting with Chinese Premier Li Qiang and said they also discussed the Russia-Ukraine war.