The ninth summit between China and Central and Eastern European countries 
(CEEC), originally scheduled for the first half of 2020, was postponed due to 
the COVID-19 outbreak, but the cooperation between the two sides has not 
stopped.

video - https://youtu.be/ICJveHvv0zo

After the total trade volume between the two sides hit $103.45 billion in 2020, 
China and CEEC highlighted further cooperation in multiple areas like vaccines, 
trade and green economy at Tuesday's China-CEEC Summit, which was held via 
video link.

What are the common goals?

Global cooperation in COVID-19 vaccines is a hot topic in the international 
community, and the China-CEEC mechanism will not be absent in making 
contributions in this area.

Chinese President Xi Jinping said in his keynote speech at the summit that 
joint efforts will be made in medical and health care, experience sharing, and 
turning COVID-19 vaccines into global public goods.

So far, Serbia has received 1 million doses of the vaccine from a Chinese 
company, and there is ongoing cooperation between Hungary and Chinese vaccine 
companies, Xi said, adding that China will actively consider such cooperation 
with other CEE countries if there is a need.

Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Xi has engaged in intensive "cloud 
diplomacy," including attending or chairing virtual meetings and having phone 
calls with foreign leaders and heads of international organizations, to make 
China's contributions to the research, development and distribution of COVID-19 
vaccines.

Trade cooperation will keep injecting powerful impetus into global economic 
recovery and growth.

China intends to import, in the coming five years, more than $170 billion of 
goods from CEEC, and will make efforts in doubling CEE countries' agricultural 
exports to China and raise two-way agricultural trade by 50 percent over the 
next five years, Xi said.

Alignment of cross-regional cooperation with Belt and Road cooperation, and 
improvement of the role of China-Europe freight trains in the economic 
development were also stressed by the Chinese president.

Currently, all 17 members of the CEEC under the cooperation framework have 
signed cooperation documents with China on the joint construction of the Belt 
and Road.

Meanwhile, the number of China-Europe freight trains stood at 12,400 in 2020, 
with key passages and destinations including Poland, Hungary and the Czech 
Republic.

Last year, a record number of 12,400 freight train trips were made between 
China and Europe, ferrying goods, particularly personal protective equipment, 
to the European continent, which was one of the hardest-hit places in the 
pandemic.

With 88 cooperation documents reached as outcome of Tuesday's summit, making 
more progress in sectors like green economy, digital economy, cultural and 
people-to-people exchanges was also stressed.

How to achieve the goals?

Undoubtedly, the tasks above are not easy, especially in the post-pandemic era 
when the global COVID-19 cases already surpassed 100 million and the number is 
still climbing and new strains of the coronavirus are running wild.

At Tuesday's summit, China underlined sustained vibrancy of cooperation between 
China and CEEC in the solutions.

Emphasizing that openness and inclusiveness are the key to the sustained 
vibrancy, Xi said that China and CEEC have developed some principles that are 
reflective of its distinctive features and accepted by all parties. 

Making decisions through consultation, delivering benefits to all cooperation 
partners, pursuing common development through openness and inclusiveness, and 
achieving bigger growth through innovation, are all important, Xi said.

Challenges and opportunities often times go hand in hand when crises hit.

The China-CEEC cooperation mechanism was born in 2012 against the backdrop of 
the European debt crisis, and now, after the whole world experienced a severe 
collapse in economy in 2020, eyes are on China and CEEC again, with more 
expectations.

Original article: here ( 
https://news.cgtn.com/news/2021-02-09/Cooperation-not-postponed-China-CEEC-gear-up-for-vaccines-trade-XK2S63XmeI/index.html 
).

source: CGTN