Oslo: China and Europe should jointly oppose a “new Cold War”, while deepening collaboration to promote common development and prosperity, Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang said in Oslo on the last day of his trip to Norway.
“China and Europe are two globally influential powers, two vast markets, and two great civilisations,” Qin said at a joint press conference with his Norwegian counterpart Anniken Huitfeldt.
“The Cold War was a tragedy for mankind. A new cold war would only bring greater disaster – severely harming the interests of people in China and Europe as well as the rest of the world, and undermining multilateralism and global governance.”
Qin said both China and Europe should oppose economic decoupling – a call to shun Washington’s policy towards Beijing that he repeatedly made during his three-nation trip to Europe, with France and Germany his earlier stops.
“China is Europe’s partner in dealing with risk and challenges, and what China exports to Europe and the whole world is sureness rather than risk.
“Both China and Europe … should jointly uphold the right direction of economic globalisation, strengthen macroeconomic policy coordination, explore cooperation potentials, properly address each other’s major concerns, and jointly maintain the stability and smoothness of global industrial and supply chains,” Qin told the press meet on Friday.
He also said that China and Europe should “respect and support different countries’ development paths chosen by their people”.
“The post-war international order must be safeguarded, and genuine multilateralism must be upheld,” he added.
European Union officials – including Commission President Ursula von der Leyen – have increasingly spoken about “de-risking” relations with the world’s second-largest economy, rather than a total decoupling. Norway is not a member of the EU but is a member of the European single market.
The European Union recently proposed to blacklist several Chinese companies for supplying Russia with banned goods and technologies that have supported its war against Ukraine – including the so-called dual-use goods that can be used for both military and civilian purposes.
China would react “strictly and strongly” to any such penalties, Qin said earlier this week during his stop in Germany.
China does not “deliver any weapons to crisis nations or crisis regions”, he had said, warning against disrupting what he called the “normal exchange between Chinese and Russian companies”.
“We strictly oppose any one-sided sanctions against China,” he said.
“If that were the case we would react strictly and strongly to them. We will also defend the legitimate and legal interests of our country and our companies.”
Courtesy: South China Morning Post
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