China’s EU ambassador says EU leaders could go to China by mid-2023

BEIJING, Feb 26 (Reuters) – Chinese language ambassador to the European Union Fu Cong mentioned European Fee President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Charles Michel could go to China within the first half of 2023, China’s state-backed International Instances reported.

Preparations for the go to by the EU’s high two officers are underneath method and “very frequent high-level mutual visits” between the EU and China are anticipated to start quickly, Fu mentioned in an interview revealed on Friday.

The 2 sides have taken divergent positions on the year-long conflict in Ukraine, with EU diplomats criticising China’s refusal to explain the battle as an invasion or to name for a Russian withdrawal from Ukrainian territory.

Fu mentioned within the interview that EU anger with China over Ukraine was “very irrational” and that China didn’t need the problem to have an effect on the event of ties with the bloc.

After the Chinese language international ministry revealed on Friday a position paper expounding its stance on the conflict, the EU’s high diplomat in China Jorge Toledo instructed reporters in Beijing that components of the paper had been regarding.

“There isn’t a point out of an aggressor there which is unusual as a result of it is clear that there’s an aggressor and there’s an agressee. It is unlawful and unprovoked. In order that’s a bit regarding,” Toledo mentioned.

Fu said in December that the conflict had put China in a really troublesome place in its relations with the EU, after Michel urged Chinese language President Xi Jinping to make use of the nation’s affect with Russia over its conflict in Ukraine throughout a visit to Beijing in early December.

Reporting by Eduardo Baptista; Modifying by Edmund Klamann

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