Brussels: Europe and the Arabs

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in remarks from Beijing following talks in the Chinese capital that our economies are closely interconnected, but the trade deficit in the European Union is increasing due to discriminatory practices. "Premier Li and I have discussed how to restore balance to our trade. We must resume our high-level economic and trade dialogue to participate in this matter," she added in a tweet.
Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, held talks with Chinese Premier Li Qixiang in Beijing, and before the talks began, the European official delivered a speech conveyed by a statement of the Commission in Brussels today, Thursday, in which she said, "Let me begin by congratulating you on your new term. China is of great importance to Europe. Through long interdependence and common history. And I also say this from family experience because my father who was the German Prime Minister of Saxony, I remember telling me when I was a little girl about his visits to China in the mid to late 1980s. And in fact, I think it was during one of these visits He signed with Anhui Province the first cooperation agreement between the Chinese province and the German "land". This was one of the many drivers of the very deep and extensive relations that China and the European Union had established in the meantime. Both Europe and China benefited greatly from this relationship, but the relations between the European Union China has become more complex in recent years.It is important that we discuss together all aspects of our relations today.This will help both the EU and China navigate a complex and volatile geopolitical environment. So I am very much looking forward to our discussions.

According to European media reports, at the time when Emmanuel Macron and Ursula von der Leyen meet with Xi Jinping, they will send a message affirming the unity of Europe, despite China's endeavor to exploit any cracks between the European allies.The Chinese president is scheduled to receive the French president and the president of the European Commission in Beijing on Thursday. Their joint trip is the latest in a marked push by European leaders toward China, which has seen German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez visit in recent months.Like them, Macron and von der Leyen will press Xi to take more steps to stop the war in Ukraine, while also working to improve increasingly fraught trade relations between the European Union and China, its largest trading partner.