The Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev has successfully concluded a four-day state visit to China from Jan. 12 to 15 at Chinese President Xi Jinping's invitation, marking the 65th anniversary of the establishment of the two countries' bilateral diplomatic relations in 1949, when Bulgaria was the second country to recognize China after the Soviet Union.

Rosen Plevneliev is the first head of state to visit China in 2014. At the same time, it is the first visit of by a Bulgarian president to China over the last fifteen years. All these "firsts" increase the significance of the trip.

The two sides have established an all-round friendly partnership in order to cement the traditional friendship and promote comprehensive cooperation under the framework of China and CEE practical cooperation. Bulgaria is the fifth Central and East European (CEE) country that has acquired the status of a bilateral friendly or strategic cooperation and partnership with China, after Hungary, Romania, Poland and Serbia. Bulgaria's exports to China doubled in 2012 and bilateral trade during the past decade has grown four-fold, reaching US$1.7 billion. This visit will add new momentum to the China-Bulgaria trade cooperation.

During his visit to China, the president achieved a lot of things. Agriculture and food processing will become new highlights in Bulgaria's cooperation with China. A number of Chinese companies have invested in agriculture in Bulgaria and agreements regarding corn exports to China have been signed. The next negotiation will be on dairy trade. Bulgaria also wishes to strengthen cooperation with China in sectors including infrastructure, energy, new materials and high technology. Meanwhile, it will offer favorable conditions to attract more Chinese tourists and investment.

During former Premier Wen Jiabao's visit to Poland, the biggest country in Central and Eastern Europe, in April 2012, he proposed twelve practical measures to enhance Sino-CEE cooperation, among which a credit line of US$10 billion was offered to CEE partners. This "real visionary act" (in the Bulgaria president's words) has received positive feedback. One delegate from the president's visiting group has disclosed that there is already competition between the CEE countries in terms of high-quality projects that can be funded with the credit line within the framework of China-CEE cooperation. Bulgaria hopes to get a share of this credit, and it has started many projects, seeking preferential funding for the construction of a hydroelectric facility on the River Danube at Nikopol-Turnu Magurele, the Black Sea highway, a tunnel under Shipka, opportunities for cooperation in building bridges across the Danube, and concessions on Bulgarian rivers and sea harbors.

To be frank, however, there are still difficulties in the Sino-CEE cooperation. The CEE, for instance, is not a homogeneous region. It comprises of 16 countries that have diverse expectations towards China, and managing those expectations is a challenge. At the same time, the EU institutions have cast doubts on the Chinese incentive for pushing forward cooperation with CEE and worry that China will try to "divide and rule" the EU bloc, because most of the countries are EU members. However China sees its cooperation with CEE countries as a part of enhancing China-EU relations.

Another important challenge is determining the identity of CEE countries. China has been advocating a new diplomatic philosophy after stepping into the new century, which regards ties with its neighbors as its primary relationships, ties with major powers as key relationships, and ties with developing countries as basic relationships and considers the multi-polar diplomacy as a platform.

But under this guiding ideology, countries in Central and Eastern Europe do not fully match any of the three dimensions. They are not China's neighbors, nor are they major powers or developing countries.

However, these countries offered great opportunities for Chinese enterprises to "go out" after the EU was hit by the debt crisis. Since then, China has started to enrich its multidirectional diplomacy by focusing more on the region. Along with the deepening of cooperation, these areas, which are yet to be clearly defined in China's diplomatic philosophy, will probably be new catalysts for China's economic and investment growth.

Central and Eastern Europe will probably not grow to be a massive market for China, but they can act as a platform for China to launch "pilot projects" of industrial upgrading. The area can serve as China's launch pad to the EU, a lucrative market where China's prospective profits will be much larger than the immediate benefits.

The author is associate Professor of the Institute of European Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.

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