Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday concluded state visits to Serbia and Poland, two of China's old friends in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and important links in China's Belt and Road Initiative.[Special coverage]
The CEE trip yielded positive outcomes, including the upgrading of China-Serbia and China-Poland relations to comprehensive strategic partnerships, and commitments to advancing cooperation in Belt and Road projects.
Xi's visits to the two countries, both of which are strategically located, are aimed at further cementing ties with the two countries, and improving the alignment of the two's respective development strategies with those of China.
Growth in bilateral cooperation will result in enhanced connectivity, greater investment and other practical benefits for CEE and Europe as a whole, experts observed.
China-CEE cooperation, also known as the 16+1 mechanism, and China-Europe cooperation, "could serve as a driving force and a model for the implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative," said Cui Hongjian, a China-Europe relations specialist with the China Institute of International Studies.
BOOMING 16+1 COOPERATION
Over the past four years, guided by the spirit of mutual respect, mutual benefit, openness and inclusiveness, the 16+1 cooperation has maintained strong momentum, expanded and deepened, and has become more mature and ready for harvest, the Chinese president said in a signed article published on a leading Polish newspaper last Friday.
CEE, home to many emerging economies, makes up nearly one fourth of all countries along the Belt and Road. These countries' cooperation with China, the world's largest developing country, has been burgeoning, covering a wide range of fields such as trade, investment, infrastructure, finance, tourism and education.
Trade volume between China and CEE countries reached 56.2 billion U.S. dollars in 2015, a 28-percent increase from 2010. Chinese investment in the 16 CEE countries exceeded 5 billion dollars, while CEE has invested more than 1.2 billion dollars in China.
Connectivity has also improved. Recent years have seen a number of Chinese cities launch freight train services to Europe, including two lines linking China's Chengdu and Suzhou with Poland's Lodz and Warsaw.
The trains, which transport goods faster than by sea and more cheaply than by air, could help build destination cities into regional logistics hubs and propel their economic growth.
