The International Forum of China and Central and Eastern European Countries (CEECs) will be held in Riga, capital of Latvia, on Nov. 4 on the fringes of Premier Li Keqiang's visit to the country for his attendance at the 5th Meeting of Heads of Government of China and CEECs.

The forum, which will be co-organized by the China-CEEC Think Tanks Network, the Institute of European Studies (IES) at Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), the Latvia Foreign Ministry and the Latvian Institute of International Affairs, aims to enhance connectivity for common advancement, said Huang Ping, director-general of IES, at a press briefing on Nov. 1 in Beijing.

"Over 100 scholars and senior officials from both China and Europe will attend the meeting and discuss how the‘16+1' mechanism will enhance China-Europe relations and inter-connectivity through more sophisticated transportation and infrastructure, as well as people-to-people exchange among the two sides," explained Huang, who is also secretary-general of the China-CEEC Think Tanks Network.

The "16+1" Think Tank Network, founded late last year under the auspices of China's Foreign Ministry and CASS, China's top national think tank, echoed Chinese Premier Li Keqiang's proposal during the Third China-CEEC Summit in Belgrade in December 2014, of establishing a"16+1" think tank network to encourage more interaction among scholars of the two sides.

The mechanism of the cooperation between China and the 16 central and eastern European countries, dubbed the "16+1" mechanism, was initiated and established in Warsaw, Poland in 2012 and has contributed much to exchanges and cooperation in fields like infrastructure, energy, trade and tourism against the backdrop ofa sluggish global economy.

The China-CEEC Think Tanks Network aims to build upon the strong momentum of the "16+1" mechanism while increasing exchanges between thinks tanks of the two sides to provide research and studies for further cooperation, explained Huang.

During President Xi Jinping's visit to the Czech Republic, Serbia and Poland this year, the network has also held several high-level seminars and forums in the three CEE countries and put forward timely and well-targeted policy suggestions on the subject.

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