Interview: EU, China urged to further mutual learning for closer ties: former ambassador

A former European Union (EU) diplomat said the EU and China should further mutual learning in order to forge closer ties.

Serge Abou, former EU ambassador to China between 2005 and 2011, made the remarks in a recent exclusive interview with Xinhua, marking the 40th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between the two sides.

Abou noted the EU and China have been learning from each other in many areas such as increasing mutual understanding and accommodating each other's differences over the years.

"There are a lot of lessons that I drew from my six-year experience in China. The first is that we have still an immense effort to make to increase our mutual understanding and knowledge. We have been far from each other for too long," he said.

"We have to fix these too easy and very often wrong images of the other side like 'mysterious China,' 'romantic France' or 'hard-working Germany,'" he said.

Abou added that systems of the two sides are different, and respective bureaucracies complex, but "there is nothing that cannot be achieved with patience and perseverance."

Abou said that in spite of differences of culture, businesses on both sides want to maximize profits and deal better with constraints.

He noted that the rapid rise in the Chinese investment in the EU in recent years shows the Chinese business circles have learned how to grow in Europe.

Abou said the six years he spent in China was "the golden age of our cooperation." During that period, the EU was very optimistic and proud of its achievement: the euro, the Lisbon Treaty, enlargement to 10 new member states. And China was enjoying an exceptional growth rate, he noted.

Abou said several events left an everlasting impression during his time in China. The first was the earthquake in Sichuan in 2012, when he admired the "full mobilization of all the Chinese people but equally the mobilization of all the international community."

The second was the Olympic Games in Beijing in 2008, which he said combined masterly organization with the kindness and hospitality shown by Beijing residents. The Shanghai Expo in 2010 was also very impressive to him.

Abou said was "rather satisfied" the development of the EU-China relationship, saying trade development has been "extraordinary," as were people-to-people exchanges.

Trade between China and the EU witnessed tremendous expansion from 2.4 billion U.S. dollars in 1975 to 615 billion U.S. dollars in 2014, he added.

EU has been China's largest trading partner over the past ten consecutive years, and China is the EU's second largest trading partner. Every single day China and Europe trade more than 1 billion euros (1.12 billion U.S. dollars). Endit