PRESS RELEASE
China’s Intent To Broaden Economic Ties with EU and ASEAN
July 11, 2016 (EIRNS)—In the run-up to the upcoming China-European Union summit at Beijing to be held on July 13, Reuters reported EU officials saying that China is set to make good on a promise to invest two billion euros in the European Union’s new infrastructure fund.
"China has a lot of liquidity and needs to invest it somewhere," one senior EU official told Reuters, asking not to be named. "We’ve made it quite clear this is a European fund over which China has no sway, but Chinese banks can expect to see returns on their loans."
"At the EU’s annual summit with China, China’s premier Li Keqiang will make an initial investment of about two billion euros (1.70 billion pounds) in a financing vehicle linked to the European Union’s 315-billion-euro European Fund for Strategic Investments,"
officials familiar with the talks told Reuters.
In Jakarta today, ASEAN and China pledged to deepen economic cooperation and enhance peace and stability in the region and the world. The Straits Times, reporting on the event, said the Chinese Ambassador to Asean, Xu Bu, speaking at a reception, "hailed the partnership as vigorous and dynamic." The article said Xu cautioned that
"while political relations have deepened and economic cooperation and trade have flourished, international and regional situations are undergoing ’profound changes’."
"Countries around the world are facing sluggish global economy, challenges in national development as well as non-traditional security threats such as terrorism, extremism, and natural disasters. Against this backdrop, it is more than necessary and important that China and ASEAN countries should further enhance unity and cooperation,"
Xu said and Reuters reported. Xu also quoted a Chinese proverb that says "close neighbors are dearer than distant relatives," the Straits Times article said.
ASEAN Secretary-General Le Luong Minh acknowledged the "significant progress" in wide-ranging areas of political security, economic and socio-cultural cooperation. Singapore’s Permanent Representative to ASEAN, Tan Hung Seng, said
"both sides pursue mutually beneficial economic cooperation and enjoy close people-to-people ties,"
the article reported.
