Investment fund, Greece in focus as Chinese Premier readies for EU trip

File photo: EU flag and Greek national flag are seen at the EU headquarters in Brussels, capital of Belgium [Xinhua]

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang will attend the 17th China-EU leaders’ meeting later this month in Brussels, the first since the change of EU leadership.

Li will, during the summit, announce plans to inject billions of dollars into a much-touted EU investment fund. The new European Fund for Strategic Investment (EFSI) plans to invest 315 billion euros into the EU’s ailing economy.

China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang said on Tuesday that Beijing hoped “Greece will get out of the crisis soon”. Lu however refused to comment on whether China will send financial aid to debt-ridden Greece.

At Greek port of Piraeus, Chinese shipping giant Cosco controls two of the three container terminals. Greece is an important gateway for China into Europe.

“From China’s standpoint, we hope Greece will get out of the crisis soon so as to enable the stable development of the EU integration process,” Lu said at a press briefing in Beijing.

As Greece struggles with EU and IMF debt, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has opened discussion channels with Russian and Chinese leaders.

Tsipras was in Saint Petersburg for a Russian economic summit during which he lauded the BRICS bloc for their efforts in strengthening multilateralism in global affairs.

Tsipras described his country’s impasse with its European creditors ahead of a debt repayment deadline as “the center of a storm”

Meanwhile, Chinese Premier Li will pay official visits to Belgium and France from June 28 to July 2. He will also visit the headquarters of the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris.

The proposed EU fund, which will now receive Chinese aid, is stated to be the cornerstone of the European Commission’s agenda to jumpstart the EU’s moribund economy, which has failed to grow effectively since the Great Recession, is mired in mass unemployment and threatens to sink into deflation.

Meanwhile, more and more European countries are likely to follow Hungary’s lead in officially signing onto China’s ambitious Silk Road project, a multi-billion dollar program to build up infrastructure and trade along the land and maritime routes of the ancient Silk Road that stretched across Asia and Europe.

Greek Premier Alexis Tsipras, who spoke after Russian President Putin at a Russian economic forum on Friday, criticized the EU for believing that it “was the center of the world”. He also noted that “economic centers of the world are shifting”.

“The economic center of the planet has shifted. There are new emerging forces that are playing a more important role geopolitically and economically. International relations are more and more characterized by multi-polarity,” said Tsipras.

“Enhanced cooperation among the BRICS countries is another manifestation of the new world order at the moment,” he added.

 

TBP and Agencies