Wang Yi Meets with Belgian Minister of Foreign Affairs Hadja Lahbib

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, met with Belgian Minister of Foreign Affairs Hadja Lahbib, who is accompanying Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo on a visit to China, in Beijing on January 12, 2024.

Wang Yi said China appreciates Prime Minister De Croo and Foreign Minister Lahbib’s emphasis on the importance of Chinabelgium relations and the positive signals sent out during their visit to China.

Wang Yi also said the steady, healthy, and positive momentum of the China-belgium relationship is attributed to the fact that the two sides have always respected and understood each other and continued to expand and deepen mutually beneficial cooperation, which has brought important benefits to the two peoples and injected stability into Chinaeu relations.

Wang Yi emphasized that China will adhere to a path of peaceful development, highquality development, and high-level openingup and that China’s door to opening-up will only be wider. Protectionism has no future, and the generalization of “de-risking” will only lead to greater risks. China is committed to building a market-oriented, law-based, and internationalized business environment and stands ready to strengthen cooperation on green development and climate change with European countries.

Lahbib said that Prime Minister De Croo’s visit achieved positive results, and that Belgium will continue to adhere to the one-china policy and not support “Taiwan independence.”

Lahbib noted, “We look forward to developing stable and constructive bilateral relations, deepening high-quality cooperation, and strengthening people-to-people exchanges with China. ‘De-risking’ does not mean closing the doors to economic and trade cooperation. Belgium hopes that economic and trade relations with China will become more balanced and that more European companies will enter the Chinese market.”