China-Greece cooperation can strengthen Sino-EU ties

President Xi Jinping’s three-day visit to Greece, which concludes on Tuesday, will promote win-win cooperation between not only China and Greece but also China and the European Union. Trade has been a highlight of Sino-Greek cooperation based on equality and mutual benefit. Besides, China’s investment in Greece played a key role in helping Greece overcome the effects of the EU sovereign debt crisis. In particular, Chinese investment in the Piraeus port, the largest in Greece, helped expand and modernize its infrastructure and improve its efficiency, while increasing employment. Which further strengthened Sino-Greek mutual trust, and China’s assistance was appreciated by Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos as well as former prime minister Alexis Tsipras.

China and Greece established a comprehensive strategic partnership in 2006, under which they have further deepened cooperation. In 2018, Greece officially joined the Belt and Road Initiative, becoming an important bridge between China and the EU. And in April this year, Greece joined the cooperation mechanism between China and Central and Eastern European countries, turning it into “17+1” (17 CCE countries plus China) cooperation mechanism.

The complementary bilateral trade structure — China as an exporter of labor- and capital-intensive products and Greece as an exporter of resource-intensive, low-tech and intermediate products — serves the best interests of the two sides. According to China’s General Administration of Customs data, China-Greek trade volume was $7.06 billion in 2018, up 36.3 percent year-onyear, with Greece’s export to China increasing by 31.2 percent. Which shows bilateral trade has huge potential for development.