BEIJING, May 8, 2024
/PRNewswire/ -- Chinese President Xi Jinping and Serbian
President Aleksandar Vucic on
Wednesday signed a joint statement on building a community with
shared future in the new era in Belgrade, making Serbia the first European
country to build such a community with China.
In the joint statement, the two countries decided to deepen and
elevate the China-Serbia comprehensive strategic partnership.
Serbia was the first Central and Eastern European country to become
China's comprehensive strategic
partner eight years ago.
"It is a strategic choice made by both sides to build a
China-Serbia community with a shared future in the new era. Its
goal is to realize the aspiration of the two peoples for a better
life. Its foundation and driving force come from the firm support
and extensive participation of the two peoples," Xi told reporters
during a joint press conference with Vucic.
Xi also announced six measures to support the building of a
China-Serbia community with a shared future.
China is ready to import more
quality and distinctive agricultural products from Serbia.
China welcomes Serbia to increase
direct flights between Belgrade
and Shanghai, and encourages
airlines from both sides to launch direct flights between
Belgrade and Guangzhou.
The Chinese side will aid 50 young Serbian scientists in
exchange programs with China for
the next three years and a total of 300 Serbian youths will be
invited to study in China in the
next three years, said Xi.
China supports Serbia in
hosting Expo 2027, and will send a delegation to participate in the
grand show. China encourages its
enterprises to take part in the construction of relevant projects,
Xi said.
With joint efforts from China
and Serbia, the free trade agreement between the two countries will
take effect on July 1, Xi said.
During his talks with Vucic on Wednesday in Belgrade, Xi said bilateral relations between
China and Serbia are richer in
content and have become a model of friendly relations between
China and European countries.
Xi called on China and Serbia
to carry forward the innovative nature of bilateral relations, open
up new prospects for cooperation, and make innovative cooperation a
new growth point of bilateral ties.
Xi was greeted by tens of thousands of Serbians on Wednesday and
a welcoming ceremony was held outside the Palace of Serbia before
the meeting between the two leaders.
Chinese national flags and Chinese-language welcoming banners
were hanging on landmark buildings in Belgrade on Wednesday.
Chinese and Serbian experts said the meeting between the two
heads of state will continue to provide high-level guidance to the
sound development of bilateral relationship for the years to come
and further inject vitality into the time-weathered, ironclad
friendship.
Ironclad friendship
On Tuesday, a signed article by President Xi titled "May the
Light of Our Ironclad Friendship Shine on the Path of China-Serbia
Cooperation" was published in Serbian media
Politika.
Xi noted in the article that "there has always been an affinity
between Chinese and Serbian peoples despite the long distance
between us. During the bitter Anti-Fascist War and our respective
nation-building in the last century, the Chinese and Serbian
peoples forged a strong friendship that extends through time and
space."
"Amid the ongoing transformations unseen in a century in the
world, our mutual support remains as strong as ever, our
cooperation is closer, and our exchanges and mutual learning more
substantive. Whatever changes in the international landscape,
China and Serbia remain true
friends and good partners. Our ironclad friendship is ever-growing,
setting a model for state-to-state and people-to-people
interactions," Xi wrote.
Xi said China and Serbia should
always be good friends and treat each other with sincerity, good
partners for win-win cooperation, play an exemplary role in
promoting fairness and justice and strengthen the heart-to-heart
connection between their two peoples.
With China's support, hundreds
of kilometers of highways have been built, the fastest railway in
Eastern Europe entered operation,
and energy facilities keep renewing, Boyan
Lalic, Director of the Belt and Road Institute Belgrade,
told the Global Times Wednesday.
The China-built high-speed
railway connecting Belgrade to
Novi Sad, inexpensive and comfortable, has cut the previously
1.5-hour trip to just 36 minutes, making a two-city life possible
for many young people seeking opportunities, the Global Times
learned.
The railway is part of a more ambitious project linking
Belgrade and Budapest, the capital of Hungary, which could finish construction as
early as 2025. The project has created jobs, offered unique career
experience and trainings, and has allowed people like Serbian
engineer Aleksandra Milosavljevic to
"make really good friends with my Chinese colleagues."
Join hands on international stage
The China-Serbia friendship,
forged with the blood of our compatriots, will stay in the shared
memory of the Chinese and Serbian peoples, and will inspire us to
march forward with big strides, Xi wrote.
Dong Yifan, a research fellow at the Institute of European
Studies, China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations,
said that both China and Serbia
adhere to independence and non-alignment in their strategic
approaches, choosing to follow their own development paths and
opposing hegemony. "We share a strong consensus in international
affairs."
The last stop of Xi's three-nation European trip is Hungary, during which a series of cooperation
agreements are expected to be signed, according to media
reports.
Both Serbia and Hungary are
pillar countries in China-proposed
BRI, and have long been at the forefront of European countries'
relations with China with close
cooperation, Dong said, adding that high-level diplomacy has played
a key role in the two countries' relations with China.
He Zhigao, a research fellow with the Institute of European
Studies of CASS, said that Serbia and Hungary "stand out" among European countries
in regard to developing China ties
partly because they can overcome some external restraints and make
more independent decisions based on their own interests.
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SOURCE Global Times