China-France Photo: VCG

China is willing to resume the institutional strategic, financial, and people-to-people and cultural exchange with France, Chinese top diplomat Wang Yi said in France on local time Thursday.

Wang Yi, director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, made the remark while co-chairing the 23rd China-France Strategic Dialogue with Emmanuel Bonne, diplomatic counselor to French President Emmanuel Macron.

Both sides agreed to strengthen strategic communication, consolidate political mutual trust, deepen pragmatic cooperation, and jointly tackle global challenges, so as to inject new impetus into China-Europe relations, providing stability to the world.

China-France strategic cooperation should play a leading role and lead the trend of development of the times, which meets the need for the development of bilateral ties and reflects the global responsibility of China and France as responsible major countries, Wang said.

China stands ready to strengthen cooperation in the fields of civil nuclear energy, aviation, aerospace, health, agricultural and food products, tourism, culture, and cooperation in the third-party markets, so as to push for new and greater achievements, Wang said.

Bonne said that he endorses the vision of the Chinese side for the next stage development of bilateral cooperation, and looks forward to new progress in various areas.

France is willing to actively participate in the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation, further intensify coordination with the Chinese side in international affairs, and cooperate with China to achieve common development goals, he added.

For particular aspects of cooperation, China-EU third-party market cooperation along the Belt and Road countries bears great potentials, Liang Haiming, Dean of Hainan University Belt and Road Research Institute, told the Global Times on Friday.

The collaboration between China and the EU on the investment in the infrastructure, energy, transportation and financial sectors of developing countries is expected to accelerate industrialization, economic development and social progress of developing countries and achieve win-win results for all parties, Liang said.

The two sides also exchanged in-depth views and reached a broad consensus on issues such as global debt, climate change, biodiversity, food security and the crisis in Ukraine.

Wang Yi is scheduled to visit France, Italy, Hungary and Russia from Tuesday to February 22 at the invitation of the governments of the four countries, Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Wang Wenbin announced on Monday.

The EU economy will be struggling in 2023 as the impact of higher interest rates on the real economy will be fully felt, Liang said.

If the EU strengthens economic and trade cooperation with China and increases its investment in China's huge market, it will bring more development opportunities for European companies and promote the economic development of EU countries, Liang noted.

Global Times