Chinese President Xi Jinping urged Europe to pursue closer cooperation in the face of a “turbulent international situation”, during his first discussion with Antonio Costa since the former Portuguese prime minister became president of the European Council.
During a telephone call on Tuesday, the sides discussed hot-button issues, according to their respective readouts, from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and China’s provision of dual-use goods to Moscow’s industrial-military complex to a dispute over EU electric vehicle tariffs.
According to Beijing’s account, Xi told Costa that “China has always believed that Europe is an important pole in a multipolar world and supports European integration and the strategic autonomy of the European Union”.
He called for Europe and China to “respect each other’s core interests and major concerns”. The statement said that the sides “exchanged views on issues such as Ukraine” where Xi “elaborated on China’s principled position of advocating peace and promoting talks”.
On trade, Xi said that China and the EU were “defenders of the multilateral trading system and have formed a strong economic symbiotic relationship”, but did not refer to the many grievances in the trading relationship, which have become a source of severe bilateral tension in recent years.
Costa took the reins of the European Council, a body made up of the leaders of the EU’s 27 member states that sets the direction for the bloc’s policies, in December, succeeding Charles Michel of Belgium.