Kallas: EU won’t turn to China despite US tensions
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas told reporters on Thursday that the EU will not pursue stronger economic ties with China, despite increasing tensions with the U.S.
Her remarks come as the UK and Canada – two of the EU’s closest allies – have both sought to improve long-fractious relations with Beijing, as Donald Trump’s trade wars, threats to invade Greenland, and broader volatility trigger seismic shifts in the global geopolitical order, News.Az reports, citing foreign media.
“China is posing a long-term challenge because they are using economically coercive practices towards our markets,” Kallas said, in an apparent reference to Beijing’s export controls on strategically critical rare earths that have hammered Europe’s industrial base over the past year.
The EU should instead seek to “reach out to … different countries” to boost its economic resilience, she added. “We really need to build our partnerships, but at the same time, not create any new dependencies because your dependencies are also your vulnerabilities.”
Europe “learned [this] the hard way” after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 exposed the bloc’s energy dependence on Moscow, she noted.
Kallas’ comments came as UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Beijing on Thursday. The Chinese leader told his British counterpart that both countries should “transcend differences” and “open up new vistas for China-Britain relations”, according to Chinese state media.
Starmer, meanwhile, announced that British citizens will soon be able to travel visa-free to China and pledged to help British businesses “grow their footprint” in “one of the world’s economic powerhouses”.
Starmer’s visit comes just a fortnight after Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney – who described the world as undergoing a geopolitical “rupture” in a much-lauded speech in Davos last week – travelled to Beijing, where he agreed to slash levies on Chinese electric vehicles and pledged to forge a “new strategic partnership” with the world’s second-largest economy.
Carney has also refused to walk back his efforts to improve ties with China despite Trump subsequently threatening Ottawa with tariffs of up to 100% if it “makes a deal” with Beijing.
He has instead suggested that Trump’s threat is an attempt to put pressure on America’s northern neighbour ahead of a renegotiation of a free trade deal with the US and Mexico later this year.
“The president is a strong negotiator, and I think some of these comments and positioning should be viewed in the broader context of that,” Carney said on Monday.
By Ulviyya Salmanli
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