„The main issue is still the declaration to further facilitate access to the Chinese market for products from our region, particularly agricultural and food products,” highlighted Polish Deputy Minister Przydacz.

The videoconference attendees exchanged their experiences of fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. The PRC authorities received thanks for their administrative support for the purchases of protective equipment  with Chinese manufacturers made by the countries of our region. It is hoped that this fruitful cooperation will continue and will be based on clear regulations communicated in advance. The participants agreed that the pandemic shall not affect the primary goals of 17+1 initiative, including the efforts to balance economic relations between Central and Eastern Europe and China.

The attendees also discussed the possible formula of this year’s summit, originally intended to take place in Peking in April yet postponed due to the pandemic. Minister Przydacz underscored that flexible approach needs to be adopted and the epidemic situation will be decisive for arranging the summit. It is also important to properly correlate the summit date with planned high level EU-China meetings. The deputy head of Polish diplomacy recalled that the EU context is important for all participants of 17+1, and that EU member states within this group take the EU community policy as a reference point for trade relations with China.

The cooperation initiative of Central and Eastern European countries and China was started in Warsaw in 2012 and has so far covered several dozen areas of sectoral cooperation. The most important political meetings are annual summits. The previous one was held in Dubrovnik on 12 April 2019 and was attended by Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki.

 

MFA Press Office

Photo: Sebastian indra/MFA