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EU hopes Wen visit to revive China summit

By David Brunnstrom | Reuters

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao shakes hands with local workers in earthquake-hit Mianzhu, Sichuan province on 25 January 2009.File photo/Reuters/China Daily/China

The European Union hopes a visit by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao this week will revive a summit China cancelled to signal its displeasure over a visit by the Dalai Lama to Europe.

Wen will arrive on Tuesday bearing pledges of support for European economies in a fence-mending tour that analysts say shows Beijing’s ability to leverage its financial muscle into diplomatic sway.

Wen will meet leaders of EU institutions and the Czech EU presidency in Brussels on Friday. EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana underscored the importance of China’s role in tackling the global economic downturn.

“We have many things to talk about. We will be talking to him about the issues of big concern to the international community, the economic crisis without any doubt, but also issues of the international agenda, in which China has an important role to play,” Solana said on Monday.

Referring to December’s cancelled summit, he told reporters: “I hope that this type of meeting will create the climate to have the summit the sooner the better — we need it.”

The visit comes less than two months after China called off a 2 December summit with the European Union to show its anger over French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s meeting with the Dalai Lama.

China is still fuming over the meeting, and Paris is conspicuously off Wen’s itinerary.

China calls the Dalai Lama a separatist, blames him for unrest in Tibet last year and has sought to stop him from meeting foreign leaders. The Dalai Lama says he only wants autonomy, not outright independence.

Beijing and Brussels also are at loggerheads over trade and broader human rights issues.

However, both sides have a big stake in sound economic ties. The EU is China’s biggest trade partner and China is the 27-member bloc’s second biggest external trade partner, behind the United States.

EU officials say China, with its $2 trillion in reserves, can play a key role in addressing the global economic crisis. But Beijing is also wrestling with slowed growth and joblessness, and Wen is unlikely to depart from his stance that China’s savings must first be used to bolster domestic growth.

In Europe, Wen will also visit Switzerland and the World Economic Forum in Davos, Germany, Spain and Britain.

Copyright © 2009 Reuters

Published in Reuters website