Li's visit deepens ties with Europe

Apart from agreeing to huge trade deals, Premier Li also found time to address two leading British think tanks with his vision for China and the world.

Trade deals also dominated Premier Li's visit to Greece where he was hosted by Prime Minister Antonis Samaras. Greece is still suffering from the financial crisis and is eager to attract Chinese investment in an effort to boost growth and tackle high unemployment. Deals worth over $5 billion were signed to cover a number of transport and infrastructure projects.

China will expand its investment in the port of Piraeus which Premier Li described as "a pearl in the Mediterranean Sea". It may also build a new airport in Crete which Li also visited.

Joint statements also drew attention to the EU-China 2020 strategic agenda, a comprehensive framework agreed by Beijing and Brussels which covers cooperation in many areas, from trade and investment to the environment and urbanization. Although there is about to be a change in the leadership of the EU institutions, this will not affect the prospects for closer ties between China and Europe. The frequency of contacts between the two sides, at all levels, means that there is much closer understanding of each other's policies and priorities.

China used to view the EU as a balancing factor in its perception of a multi-polar world. Now it views the EU as an important actor in its own right, an actor with which it still has some differences, but also an actor with which it increasingly shares a vast number of common interests. The visit of Premier Li to the UK and Greece will have served to highlight just how much Europe and China have in common.

The author is the director of the EU-Asia Centre in Brussels.

(China Daily 06/24/2014 page9)