EU Ambassador Toledo participates in World Peace Forum in Beijing

On 12 July, at the World Peace Forum in Beijing, EU Ambassador to China Jorge Toledo participated in a panel on "China-Europe Relations in a Turbulent World". In his intervention, Ambassador Toledo gave his assessment of the state of EU-China relations. He underlined that the EU's multifaceted approach - partner, competitor, systemic rival - is not a strategy, but a fair description of the relationship and that the EU's strategy towards China is in fact engagement. However, while engagement is a method, it is not an objective. The objective is in fact to make progress.

On climate change, environment and biodiversity, which is part of our partnership with China, we are making good progress, particularly on methane and ETS. However, much more needs to be done. We call on China to upgrade its ambitions, stop adding new coal-power capacity and - being the larger emitter in the world, an upper-middle income country according to the UN and no longer an developing country - start contributing to the Loss and Damage Fund.

Ambassador Toledo further underlined that people-to-people exchanges were not back to pre-pandemic levels, not least because the Chinese government national security regulations are imposing growing restrictions for Chinese scholars, think tanks and students to meet with embassies or foreigners in general.

On Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine, Ambassador Toledo asked how partnership would be possible, especially as China did not even participate in the first peace conference in Switzerland. This was a sign that China does not grasp how existential this is for the EU. When it came to China's recent celebration of the five principles of peaceful coexistence - sovereignty and territorial integrity, non-aggression, non-interference, equality and mutual benefit, and peaceful coexistence -, Ambassador Toledo posed the question of which one of these principles was not being blatantly violated by Russia in Ukraine.

Ambassador Toledo also stated that the EU has been trying to engage with China for months for discussion on pending trade and economic issues. Although the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) and the Chinese Mission to the EU subsequently criticised these remarks claiming that the Chinese government had always been open to dialogue and consultations, the fact is that a request by the European Commission to Chinese MOFCOM made over five months ago proposing consultations on trade and economic issues remains unanswered.