A wealth of agreements concerning maritime transportation,
environmental protection and biological diversity are expected to
be reached at the upcoming annual China-EU summit in Beijing next
week, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Qin Gang announced yesterday at
a regular press briefing, the first after the summer break.
President Hu Jintao
will meet with the European delegation to the summit scheduled next
Monday before leaving for the US for his North American tour.
Among the dignitaries to attend the Eighth China-EU
Summit will be Premier Wen
Jiabao, UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, and European Commission
President Jose Manuel Barroso. The UK currently holds the EU
presidency.
Qin said the summit would cover a wide range of
topics in a bid to further promote a comprehensive China-EU
strategic partnership.
He said the Second China-EU Business Summit would
also be held next week, hoping to increase the level of practical
cooperation.
Reports said the two sides would announce the
beginning of formal talks on a new China-EU framework agreement,
and that observers believed the summit was another strong signal of
a mutual commitment to deepen bilateral relations.
The EU became China's largest trade partner last
year while China was the EU's second biggest, according to Qin, who
said he has full confidence in rosy prospects for bilateral
cooperation.
Blair will remain in China on Tuesday and then fly
to India the next day. It is reported that his spokesperson said
the visits were an opportunity for him to get a firsthand
experience of some of the fastest growing economies in the
world.
Turning to the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue, Qin
indicated that there is still no specific date for the resumption
of six-party
talks, but "China is working with other parties on the
timetable."
Qin said the parties concerned have conducted
extensive consultations and dialogue during the talks' recess after
they failed to resume as scheduled in the week of August 29. But
North Korea agreed to rejoin the talks in the week of September
12.
"These negotiations and dialogue are also an
important part of the six-party talks process and will help
increase mutual understanding," said Qin.
"The date of resuming the talks is not important.
What's important is that all the parties agreed to resume the talks
and we all have kept contact and negotiation in the framework of
six-party talks," said Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei after a
recent visit to North Korea.
Responding to the ongoing Japanese election
campaign, Qin said he is not in a position to comment since it is
Japan's internal affair. However, he said no matter who the new
Japanese leader is, he hoped bilateral relations could develop
continually in the spirit of "taking history as a mirror and facing
forward to the future."
It is a persistent stance that China opposes
Japanese political figures' visits to the Yasukuni Shrine, where 14
Class-A WWII war criminals are honored, he said.
Qin also expressed deep sympathy and condolences to
the Iraqi people for the Baghdad bridge stampede on Wednesday,
describing it as "a misfortune event with heavy casualties."
According to latest reports, the death toll has
risen to 965 with 465 others injured.
A fake suicide bomb alarm is reported to have
triggered the stampede on a bridge over the Tigris River as 1
million pilgrims from many parts of Baghdad and other provinces
gathered for the annual commemoration of the death of the seventh
of the 12 most revered Shi'a imams.
Qin also announced that Hungarian Prime Minister
Gyurcsany Ferenc will visit from September 8 to 9 at the invitation
of Premier Wen.
(China Daily, Xinhua News Agency September
2, 2005)