Greece ‘the gateway of cooperation between Asia and Europe,’ Chinese ambassador notes

Greece has become “the gateway of the cooperation between East Asia, even the whole Asia, and Europe,” Chinese Ambassador Xiao Junzheng said in Athens on Thursday.
At a press conference at the Chinese Embassy at the NE suburb of Paleo Psychiko to mark the 50th anniversary of Greek-Chinese relations, the Chinese ambassador said the two countries, representatives of ancient civilizations, established diplomatic relations on June 5, 1972, and he presented a logo created for the occasion.

The ambassador spoke in detail of the history of Greece-China relations, “developing as steady as rock with unceasing momentum,” and of the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership they signed in 2006. The two countries also signed the memorandum of understanding to jointly advance the construction of the Belt and Road in August 2018, while in April 2019 Greece became a full member of China-CEEC (Central and Eastern European Countries) cooperation. Their model has become, he said “a model of peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation between countries of different sizes, systems and cultures.”

Additionally, the Joint Economic and Trade Committee has convened for 13 times: “The China International Import Expo (CIIE) and the China-CEEC Expo has become important platforms for cooperation between enterprises from both countries,” he noted.

Citing Chinese statistics, Ambassador Xiao Junzheng said that the bilateral trade volume between China and Greece has jumped to 12.15 billion US dollars in 2021, from less than 100 million US dollars in the early 1990s, turning Greece into China’s fourth largest trading partner among Central and Eastern European countries. At the same time, China remains Greece’s third largest trading partner in the world and the largest outside the EU.

Citing Greek statistics, he added that since 2010 net foreign direct investment inflows from China (including Hong Kong) totaled nearly 2.2 billion euros, making China the sixth in the world and the first outside Europe among the main sources of investment of Greece.

The ambassador also spoke about Chinese investments in Greece (highlighting the Piraeus Port and the Crete-Peloponnese interconnection project), stated China’s stance on the Ukraine war and NATO, reaffirmed that “the territorial sovereignty of every country must be respected and upheld” and detailed China’s efforts to control the Covid-19 outbreak, which included providing humanitarian assistance to Greece to fight the pandemic.

SOURCE; AMNA