President of the European Council, Charles Michel, and President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, accompanied by High Representative Josep Borrell, representing the EU, will meet Chinese President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Qiang in two separate sessions.
The summit will be an opportunity to engage with China at the highest level and to pursue constructive and stable EU-China relations.
The focus of the summit will be the state of EU-China relations and international issues, including Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine and the situation in the Middle East.
The leaders will discuss ways of ensuring a more balanced and reciprocal trade relationship, as well as areas of shared interest such as climate change, food security, global health and pandemic preparedness.
The EU will advocate the need to support the multilateral rules-based international order and recall the EU’s approach to de-risking and economic security.
EU-China relationship
At the June European Council, EU leaders held a strategic discussion on the EU’s relations with China.
In their conclusions, they reaffirmed the EU’s multifaceted approach towards China, and the continued engagement with China:
– to tackle global challenges such as climate change, pandemic preparedness and Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine
– to ensure a level playing field for a balanced economic and trade relationship
Previous summit
The previous EU-China summit took place on 1 April 2022 via video conference.