The two sides have been developing a "mature strategic partnership" in recent years by expanding their cooperation in various fields, as Christophe Doucerain, an EU representative to China, put it last November.

Since China and the European Community, predecessor of the EU, forged diplomatic ties in 1975, their relations have experienced ups and downs. But they have strengthened mutual understanding andtrust through cooperation as well as friction.

The EU released its first document on China ties in 1995, outlining the framework for its long-term policies toward China.

In May 2001, the EU published a new document on China ties, stressing short- and medium-term actions that can further bilateral relations more effectively.

In its latest document on China ties released last October, the EU defined its relationship with China as a "strategic partnership."

"The last decade has seen a dynamic growth of the relationship between the EU and China, which has expanded well beyond the traditional areas of trade, investment and technical assistance," said European Commissioner for External Relations Chris Patten while commenting on the paper.

"These changes have brought about a new maturity in the relationship characterized by an increasingly close policy coordination in many areas," he added.

Following the EU's latest policy paper on China, the Chinese government issued its first-ever policy paper on the EU in mid-October, spelling out the objectives of China's EU policy and outlining plans and measures for cooperation in the coming five years.

"The EU and China will develop together by boosting cooperationin various fields," President of the European Commission Romano Prodi said in a recent interview with Xinhua.

The achievements in bilateral ties have also been demonstrated in fast-growing trade. The total two-way trade between the EU and China has increased 40-fold since reforms began in China in 1978.

Bilateral trade grew 13.5 percent to 134.8 billion euros (160.4billion US dollars) in 2003. China and the EU now have become eachother's second largest trading partner, experts said.

With the entry of 10 new members on May 1, the largest-ever enlargement in EU's history, there is greater potential for Sino-EU economic cooperation.

"I see a lot of complementarities in our economies," Prodi said,stressing that this will promise more and better economic cooperation in coming decades.

Apart from economic cooperation, leaders from the two sides agreed to facilitate cultural exchanges and cooperation in education with a view to achieving better mutual understanding, a prerequisite for any further substantial development of bilateral relations.

In October 2003, China and the EU signed a joint training program on global navigational satellite systems on the basis of the Galileo Project, a European alternative to America's global positioning system (GPS).

The two sides also pledged to boost cooperation in atomic energy, customs, environmental protection and intellectual property rights.

A memorandum of understanding on approved destination status signed in February, which will facilitate Chinese group tourism toEurope, marked a new era in tourism cooperation between China and the EU, experts said.

Source: Xinhua News Agency

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