BRUSSELS: The European Union and China are working to hold a summit this year, Brussels said Tuesday, after a phone call between one of its top officials and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
European Council chief Antonio Costa, who heads the body representing the EU’s 27 countries, said his first call with Xi since taking office in November had been “constructive”.
“We agreed that the EU and China working together to tackle global challenges would be a positive signal for peace, stability, and prosperity,” Costa posted on BlueSky.
“Marking the 50th anniversary of bilateral relations in 2025, I look forward to the next EU-China summit in Brussels later this year.”
The heads of the EU’s two main institutions – the Council and the European Commission – have held regular summits with China’s leadership but did not meet in 2024.
An EU official said Xi and Costa “agreed to remain in contact, with invitations for a visit being extended in both directions and preparations for the EU-China Summit proceeding”.
Top EU officials meet with Xi in China summit with trade in focus
A summit this year would come at a sensitive time, with Donald Trump taking the reins in the United States, and Beijing and Brussels involved in a growing trade row.
An official readout released by state broadcaster CCTV said Beijing “has confidence in the EU and hopes that the EU can also become a partner that China can trust”.
“Xi Jinping stressed that China and Europe have no fundamental conflicts of interest or geopolitical contradictions,” it said.
“Both sides are defenders of the multilateral trading system and have formed a strong economic symbiotic relationship.”
Sparring
The EU is also keen to see China put pressure on close ally Russia to end its war in Ukraine as the third anniversary of the full-scale invasion approaches.
Costa said he had “stressed that Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine threatens global peace” and “emphasized the need for a comprehensive, just and lasting peace”.
He also underscored that EU-China trade “relations need to be balanced and based on a level-playing field”.
“Both leaders reaffirmed their mutual commitment to a rules-based international order and to multilateralism,” the EU official added.
The phone call came as the EU on Tuesday accused China of discriminating against European medical device producers in public contracts in the latest commercial tensions.
The two economic powers have been sparring since Brussels unleashed a raft of probes in 2024, to which China has retaliated by launching investigations of its own into EU products.
Last year, the EU slapped higher duties on electric cars produced in China after concluding producers benefitted from unfair state subsidies, raising fears of a trade war between the two sides.
Beijing in response announced provisional tariffs on brandy imported from the EU, and later imposed “temporary anti-dumping measures” on the liquor.
China last week said the EU had imposed unfair trade and investment barriers on Beijing but Brussels has insisted its actions are compliant with World Trade Organization rules.
With a more protectionist US administration looming under incoming president Trump, the EU says it wants to bolster its competitivity to prevent its economy falling further behind the United States and China.
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