China-Greece ties testify to wisdom of pursuing dynamic cooperation

The visit by President Xi Jinping and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Monday to Piraeus Port, during the Chinese leader’s three-day state visit to Greece, highlighted how the two countries have worked together to pursue mutually beneficial cooperation and achieve fruitful outcomes in trade, investment and infrastructure cooperation.

Prior to a subsidiary of China Ocean Shipping Company taking over the management of the port’s container terminal in 2009, the port was on the brink of bankruptcy and considered “uninvestable in” by other companies. Today, COSCO manages all the port’s operations having acquired a majority stake in 2106, and Piraeus has become not only the largest container port in the Mediterranean, but also a symbol of the burgeoning cooperation between the two countries.

Greece was among the first members of the European Union to sign an intergovernmental cooperation document with China to jointly advance cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative, and in April, Greece joined the cooperation mechanism between China and Central and Eastern European Countries as a full member.

And bilateral trade has surged forward. In the first half of 2019, it reached $4.14 billion, up 21.4 percent year-on-year.

China’s investments in Greece have not only helped the European country recover faster from its debt crisis but also helped it understand the true meaning of friends, Mitsotakis told Xi during their port visit.

In a signed article published on Sunday in the Greek newspaper Kathimerini (The Daily) ahead of his visit, Xi hailed the two countries as two great civilizations that have much in common and much to offer each other. The series of bilateral agreements signed during Xi’s visit in fields such as investment, education, ports, finance and energy are testament to this.

By maintaining the strong momentum of engagement, continually enhancing mutual understanding and trust, and rendering further support for each other’s core interests and major concerns, the two sides can enhance their cooperation and make their relationship a role model for a new type of international relations.

The growth of China-Greece relations is testimony that ancient civilizations are capable of dynamic, mutually beneficial cooperation in modern times, Xi wrote in his article.

The ancient civilizations of China and Greece asked what the world looked like and what was man’s place in it. Today, in a world that is undergoing profound changes unseen in a century, China and Greece can help answer the question being asked today: What should the future of our world look like?

By drawing on their ancient civilizations’ answers to the questions they asked and forging relations based on mutual respect, equity, justice and mutually beneficial cooperation, China and Greece can demonstrate the answer to today’s existential query is building a community with a shared future for mankind.