On March 26, 2024, Ambassador Fu Cong, Head of the Chinese Mission to the EU, paid a farewell visit to Valdis Dombrovskis, Executive Vice-President of the European Commission. The two sides had in-depth exchanges on China-EU economic and trade relations and issues of common interest.

Ambassador Fu thanked Mr. Dombrovskis for the high importance the latter attaches to the development of China-EU relations and the strong support for his work. Ambassador Fu said that over the past year, the relations between China and the EU have made remarkable headway, and the China-EU Summits and exchanges at all levels including the high-level economic and trade dialogues have injected strong impetus into the bilateral relations. The two sides boast highly complementary economies and enjoy great potential for development. China sees the EU as its partner rather than a rival and attaches great importance to its economic and trade ties with the EU. China stands ready to work with the EU to implement the important consensus on economy and trade reached by leaders of the two sides, consolidate cooperation in traditional areas, and actively expand cooperation in new areas, so as to bring the comprehensive strategic partnership to a new phase.

Mr. Dombrovskis lauded Ambassador Fu’s outstanding contributions to advancing EU-China economic and trade ties in the current complex environment. He said that China is the EU’s second largest trading partner, and the EU values its relations with China. The EU is willing to boost trade and practical economic cooperation with China, and push forward the sustained growth of EU-China relations.