Greater China-EU cooperation will instill confidence in multilateralism

President Xi Jinping visited Italy, Monaco and France from March 21 to 26. Beijing Youth Daily comments:

Xi's visit laid bare the huge potential of China and Europe to strengthen cooperation in many fields, and has injected new vitality into the comprehensive strategic partnership between China and the European Union.

Italy's signing of a memorandum of understanding on the Belt and Road Initiative will directly boost its economic growth and intensify market interactions between China and the EU. As the first G7 country entering the initiative, Italy can generate more demonstration effects for the other developed economies, prompting more OECD countries to think seriously about the benefits of the initiative.

The Second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation, which will be held in Beijing this month, will provide an important platform for China and Europe to ramp up their collaboration under the framework.

China and the EU are important partners and together they can promote better global governance, and safeguard multilateralism and economic globalization. Xi's visit has consolidated the two sides' consensus in this regard. That Xi met with the leaders of France, Germany and the EU in Paris for a forum on global governance conveys a strong signal to the world that enhanced global governance is necessary for the international community to face up to the common challenges confronting the world.

The EU has been the largest trade partner of China since 2004, and China is the EU's second-largest trade partner. The Foreign Investment Law China's legislature just passed, which is destined to improve the business environment and protect the intellectual property rights in China, is expected to boost European enterprises' investment in and trade with China.

China and the EU should take advantage of their comprehensive strategic partnership to make the economic globalization develop in a more open, transparent, inclusive and indiscriminate direction.

The two sides should make the China-France Global Governance Forum a regular event and a platform for exploring global governance and China-EU multilateralism. They should strengthen their cooperation in environmental protection, global warming and geopolitics, and take advantage of the upcoming China-EU Summit and the Second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation to build a foundation of mutual trust, coordinate mutual positions and further promote comprehensive cooperation. In this way they can work together to improve the global governance system and promote economic globalization to be more open and transparent.