Ladies and Gentlemen,

I have visited Europe a number of times. Europe boasts a long history and splendid cultures and is advanced in economy, science and technology. As a major pillar of the world that carries strategic significance, Europe contributes in its own way to safeguarding world peace. Europe cares about China and has an interest in China, and I believe the same is true with China about Europe. We are heartened to see the positive results in Europe's efforts to stabilize economy and regain its competitiveness. Important steps have been made towards the building of a banking union, and progress has been achieved in the structural reforms of the deeply indebted countries, with a notable drop of the treasury bond yields. We believe that Europe will emerge even stronger and more prosperous from the crisis.

Over the past four decades, the China-Europe relationship has grown from a seedling into a luxuriant tree that has borne rich fruits. Our political trust, economic cooperation and people-to-people exchanges have all scaled unprecedented heights. Since the establishment of diplomatic ties, trade between China and Europe has increased by over 230 folds. Every day, some $1.5 billion worth of trade is being conducted between the two sides, which means that during the twenty minutes of my speech today, the two sides have already concluded trade deals worth tens of millions of US dollars. The bond of common interests between us makes China-Europe relations even more appealing and expansible, which gives us every reason to be confident in the future of China and Europe.

China and Europe are two major strategic forces. We both undertake the lofty mission of promoting global economy, advancing human civilization and progress and safeguarding world peace. The two sides are expanding their converging strategic interests. During his visit to Europe last spring, President Xi Jinping called on China and Europe to work jointly to build the four bridges for peace, growth, reform and civilization between the two sides and a China-EU comprehensive strategic partnership of greater global influence, which brought our relationship to a new height. We are ready to work with the European side to keep the development of our relationship on the right track and jointly set up a new model of mutual benefit and win-win cooperation in the world. China is the largest emerging market and the EU the largest developed economy. Nothing is impossible when the two "largests" converge. And strength will be multiplied if the "emerging" meets the "developed". China-EU cooperation may serve as a fine example of that between the emerging and developed economies. China and Europe are located at the two ends of the Eurasian continent, the biggest landmass on earth and the most populous continent in the world with huge market and great development opportunities. Together China and Europe may contribute even more to promoting prosperity and development and achieving win-win and all-win development in Asia and Europe. Both sides call for greater democracy in international relations and we share common interests on many major international issues. Our relationship is acquiring more and more important global significance. The two sides may join hands in the course of promoting world peace and global governance. Both China and Europe enjoy splendid culture and the tradition of objective reasoning and speculative philosophy. While China advocates "harmony without uniformity", the EU stands for "unity in diversity". The 1.3 billion Chinese people and the 700 million European people have a common destiny and a common future. China and Europe may well take the lead in promoting mutual learning and inclusiveness between different civilizations.