Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-07-15-Speech-3-161"
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"en.20090715.11.3-161"2
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"Mr President, another debate of, needless to say, some importance. And, although the subject is China, it of course takes place against the background of some significant developments in Xinjiang in the western part of China. I know that these events have been followed by many Members of this Parliament as well as our respective national parliaments throughout Europe.
We have also, as a Council, expressed our concern over the reports on the unrest there and called for restraint on all sides and for the situation to be resolved peacefully. I think it is time for us to say that we attach great importance to human rights. We also profoundly regret not only the loss of life but the destruction of property and everything else that we have seen happening and we can only condemn those that are responsible for it, whoever they are.
But let me also take this opportunity to take stock somewhat more widely of our relationship with China, a country with which we have an extraordinary range of complex relationships. In fact, when we decided in 2003 to set up those relationships within the framework of a comprehensive strategic partnership, we were committing ourselves to an extremely ambitious enterprise, and this is very much reflected in the broad and wide-ranging relationship which we have with China today.
Complexity of course brings opportunities. It also brings challenges of different sorts. What we have tried to do with this relationship is to open it up to the point where we can discuss frankly and openly any concern that we might have on either side. The basis for such an open dialogue is the shared interest that we have in developing our relationship, our shared interest in global peace and stability.
We pursue this through dialogue and through multilateralism. We have the annual summit meetings and we have fairly frequent meetings at the level of foreign ministers. We also have an intense biannual human rights dialogue and then of course sectoral dialogues on different issues, trade obviously being one of particular importance. We also have the annual high-level dialogue on trade and economic issues. As you are aware, in 2007 we also launched negotiations for a partnership and cooperation agreement. Negotiations are progressing but still there is a potential to increase efforts on both sides in these negotiations.
We have a very clear interest in developing the relationship with China in all fields, and that entails, as I said, the possibility for an open and frank dialogue, also on issues where our values might be different, and we know that such issues exist, including human rights, including issues like the use of the death sentence; but also to pursue the common interest that, needless to say, we have these days: issues of global financial stability, issues of how to deal with the climate change challenge are important.
Also important are foreign policy issues, be that the situation we face over the Korean peninsula with the provocation by the DPIK, or the situation in Burma, where we are concerned, obviously, at what we see happening, but our concern also stretches to the situation in Africa and the need to protect the vital sea routes around the Horn of Africa.
I will not go further into this question now, but wish only to underline the concern that we have over developments, without being able to assess those in every single detail because they are exceedingly complex, our hope that they could be resolved peacefully and our readiness to engage with the Chinese authorities in a frank dialogue on these issues, as well as on the broad range of other interests that we share together and that we need to have a dialogue on."@en1
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