Chinese President Starts ‘Historic’ Serbia Visit

“Grudges in the past should not hinder global cooperation at present, thus all participants of WWII, including Japan and Germany, should attend China’s commemorative activities to prevent historical tragedies from happening again”, the president said.

“China is ready…to raise the level of bilateral ties”, Xi said.

Uzbekistan has also witnessed a rapid growth in its ties with China since it established a strategic partnership with the country in 2012. “The EU does not mind Serbia’s cooperation (with China) as it is also looking for common interests with China in the economic sphere”.

In 2015, the value of Serbia’s exports to China amounted to only 20.8 million dollars, while in the same period, the value of Serbia’s imports from China amounted to 1.6 billion dollars. Several meetings of southeast European countries and China have been held in the past years and accompanied by investment projects, mostly in energy and infrastructure.

“Economic cooperation has been developing strongly in recent years, not just in commodities (worth $1.3 billion), but cooperation is increasing on specific projects like the Kostolac thermal power plant, which is worth more than $1 billion”. With an abundant manufacturing capacity, China can support local production in CEE countries in win-win cooperation between the two sides, said Wang Yiwei, head of the European Union Research Center at China’s Renmin University.

Xi will pay state visits to Serbia, Poland and Uzbekistan from June 17 to 22. The Chinese company has promised to employ all 5,000 workers of the factory.

With China having signed cooperation deals with Poland, Serbia, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria and Slovakia, further steps were taken in synergizing China’s development plan with those of the five CEE countries.

China is also investing in infrastructure in the country, including jointly building an industrial park and the longest railway tunnel in Central Asia. Infrastructure investments have been a vital component of the partnership.

The two countries are expected to sign a series of agreements, including on banking and aviation. The Chinese president is expected to mainly tackle the implementation of his landmark Belt and Road initiative.

“The Belt and Road Initiative opposes seeking dominance in regional affairs or sphere of influence, does not intervene in internal affairs of regional countries, and is in accord with existing regional mechanisms and cooperative proposals”, said Liu Jianchao, a former Chinese assistant foreign minister.

“Within the One Belt, One Road initiative, which includes cooperation between Central and Eastern Europe, cooperation between the two countries is constantly improving”, Xi wrote in the Serbian daily Politika before his arrival on Friday.

The initiative encourages related countries to join hands voluntarily, follow market and business rules, and push ahead on an equal and mutually beneficial basis, he said. “They have now realized that the mechanism is actually a new platform quite helpful for the European integration”.