On May 8, 2020, Qin Gang, Vice Foreign Minister and Secretary-General of the Secretariat for China-Central and Eastern European Countries (CEEC) Cooperation, chaired the video conference of National Coordinators for China-CEEC Cooperation in Beijing. National coordinators or representatives of 17 CEECs attended the meeting, and representatives of Austria, Belarus, the European Union, Switzerland and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development were present at the meeting as observers.
Qin Gang noted, the COVID-19 pandemic has been rampaging and spreading fast in many places across the world. Both China and CEECs face severe challenges. China expresses its sincere sympathy and firm support to countries in the region in their all-out efforts to combat the epidemic. Since the onset of the disease, China and CEECs have been supporting and helping each other, injecting positive momentum into China-CEEC cooperation in battling the epidemic. Mankind live in a community with a shared future. Unity and cooperation is the most powerful weapon to overcome challenges. The Chinese side is willing to take active measures, shoulder responsibilities, trust and support each other with CEECs and other European countries, and take concrete actions to jointly promote international cooperation in the fight against COVID-19.
CEEC national coordinators noted, the economic and social development of CEECs has been greatly impacted by the COVID-19 outbreak. While doing best to combat the epidemic, all CEECs will do a better job in economic recovery and development. They expressed gratitude to China for its selfless sharing of epidemic containment experience and for its valuable assistance to CEECs despite the huge challenges China faces. It has provided CEECs with strong support in their efforts to fight the epidemic. It is timely and highly relevant to hold a video conference of national coordinators. CEECs stand ready to sincerely cooperate with China, strengthen coordination and overcome current difficulties so as to prevail over the virus at an early date.
All participants exchanged views on promoting China-CEEC cooperation given the backdrop of current pandemic. All parties agreed that to maintain the momentum of China-CEEC cooperation, expand new areas of cooperation and further strengthen practical cooperation under the current circumstances will help promote China-CEEC relations and China-Europe cooperation and inject strong impetus into the economic development of all countries.
(The 17 Central and Eastern European Countries are Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia and Slovenia. )
Source: fmprc.gov.cn
