By Liz Lee and Xiuhao Chen
BEIJING (Reuters) -China confirmed on Monday it will hold a top-level summit with the European Union in Beijing this week marking 50 years of diplomatic ties as both sides seek to navigate trade disputes amid broader global trade uncertainties.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa will visit China on Thursday and meet Chinese President Xi Jinping, the Chinese foreign ministry said on Monday.
China’s Premier Li Qiang will be co-chairing the 25th China-EU summit with the EU leaders the same day.
The meeting comes as global trade frictions heat up, with Beijing seeking to secure closer economic and political ties with the bloc to hedge against uncertainties in its relations with the United States.
EU-China relations deteriorated sharply in 2021 when Brussels sanctioned Chinese officials over alleged human rights abuses in the Xinjiang region, a move that saw swift retaliatory sanctions from Beijing, halting much of bilateral exchanges.
Relations have also been marred by various trade disputes in recent years, including those over Chinese-made electric vehicles, European brandy and pork, government purchases of medical devices, and rare earths.
The summit comes at a key time for these relations, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun told reporters at a regular press briefing.
China looked forward to the bloc working together, Guo said.
“China has always believed that after 50 years of development, China-EU relations…can cope with the changing difficulties and challenges,” he said, characterising ties between the pair as mature and stable but facing issues.
In a recent speech, von der Leyen praised China’s economic progress but said the country had flooded global markets with its overcapacity, limited access to its market, and de-facto enabled Russia’s war economy.
The bloc, which calls China “a partner for cooperation, an economic competitor and a systemic rival,” has also said it saw the need to thaw ties amid global trade uncertainties.
After U.S. President Donald Trump announced sweeping tariffs in April, von der Leyen told China’s Premier Li in a phone call that it was EU and China’s responsibility “to support a strong reformed trading system, free, fair and founded on a level playing field.”
(Reporting by Liz Lee, Xiuhao Chen and Shanghai newsroom; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Raju Gopalakrishnan)
