European Council President Donald Tusk and EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker will begin talks with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang in Beijing on Monday, with investment relations and reciprocal market access expected to dominate talks.
China, which is finding itself in ever-deeper contentions with the US over trade, will likely appeal for an anti-Washington alliance with the EU leaders, who have also been on the receiving end of Donald Trump’s ‘America First’ policy. European envoys have reported a more pressing tone for cooperation from their Chinese counterparts since the prospect of a trade war has intensified, according to Reuters.
The Chinese ambassador to the EU, Zhang Ming, said on Sunday that China-EU relations could act as a “standard of stability” among the “din of unilateralism and protectionism”, adding that the two regions should act as “two major forces of stability and responsibility” in the world.
Both sides are also expected to establish a working group to shadow and reform the World Trade Organisation during the meeting, as well as discuss pertinent geopolitical questions such as the upholding of the Iran Nuclear Deal and denuclearisation on the Korean Peninsula.