2016年CRI E.U. Supports China's G20 Presidency（在线收听）

Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi met with the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini on Friday in Brussels.

Leading the Chinese delegation, Yang Jiechi says cooperation between Asia and Europe is crucial to global development and stability.

"China believes that the upcoming meeting for Asian-European leaders is an important platform to facilitate the cooperation between the two continents and push forward the steady development of world peace. China stands ready to work together with the EU and other European countries, and Asian countries to enable positive results being made out of the meeting scheduled in Mongolia."

Mongolia will host this year's Asia-Europe Meeting in July.

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the summit, which was created to enhance cooperation between the two continents.

Also taking place in July is the 18th China-EU summit, with Beijing as the host city this year.

Yang Jiechi says the two sides have agreed to fully implement the consensus reached by EU and Chinese leaders at last year's summit, which includes coordination on development strategies, and cooperation in areas that include trade, investment, infrastructure connectivity and cultural exchanges.

The two sides also agreed to accelerate talks on bilateral investment agreements, in addition to expanding joint efforts in political security, technology innovation, maritime economy, ocean technology and tourism.

For her part, the EU's foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini says that China, as the host of the G20 summit this year, has the EU's support when it comes to tackling important international issues.

"The European Union fully supports China's presidency of the G20 this year, when it comes to China taking a strong lead to implement the global agenda we have in front of us, being at the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development as well as the Paris Agreement on climate change, or the need to work on economic growth worldwide. China is a key partner in both delivering climate action and implementing the sustainable development goals and can play a crucial role in the Security Council."

This year's G20 leader's Summit will be held in Hangzhou in September.

Meanwhile, Mogherini has also praised China-EU collaboration on international affairs, such as the Iranian nuclear deal.

"Our close cooperation on the Iranian nuclear deal has set a positive example to do more together in this area so we discussed the scope of cooperation on Syria, Iraq, Libya and the Middle East peace process."

Friday's meeting also included discussions on the situation in Ukraine, global refugee migration and the two sides' joint efforts to counter terrorism.

For CRI, I'm Victor Ning.