German newspaper “Handelsblatt” reports that many Central and Eastern European countries have shown little interest in the upcoming “17+1” leaders’ videoconference on the 9th, despite the personal presence of Chinese Communist Party President Xi Jinping (pictured).
The leaders of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and Central and Eastern European countries will meet at a summit on the 9th, but this year the leaders of Lithuania and other countries declined to attend, dampening the CPC’s efforts to bring in Central and Eastern Europe.
German newspaper Handelsblatt, citing diplomatic sources, reported that despite the personal presence of Chinese President Xi Jinping, many countries in Central and Eastern Europe have shown little interest in the upcoming “17+1” leaders’ video conference on the 9th, and the Baltic states of Lithuania and Estonia, as well as Romania, have decided to decline the invitation of the Chinese Communist Party. At most, they will designate lower-ranking officials to attend the meeting.
The Chinese Communist Party has extended its tentacles into Central and Eastern Europe in the name of economic and trade cooperation, holding annual summits with the leaders of 16 Central and Eastern European countries, including Poland and the Czech Republic, since 2012, also known as “16+1 cooperation”.
The 17+1 summit was originally scheduled for early last year, but was postponed to February this year due to the Epidemic, and was held by video instead.
According to informed sources, Central and Eastern European countries have turned to a wait-and-see attitude towards the 17+1 mechanism because they are not only disappointed with the failure of the Chinese Communist Party to deliver on its investment promises, but also because the summit is too political and lacks economic and trade content.
Therefore, although Beijing attaches great importance to the upcoming “17+1” meeting between the leaders of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the Central and Eastern European countries on the 9th, and is trying to get the Baltic states to appoint high-level officials to attend, no official date has been announced for the summit due to the divergent views of many countries and the CPC.
The “17+1 Cooperation” mechanism has been controversial in Europe because EU countries fear that Europe will be divided by the Chinese Communist Party. EU online media Politico Europe reported that Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, who just took office at the end of January, said through a spokesman that he would rather participate in the “EU 27+1” mechanism, that is, to use the common policies of the 27 EU countries to deal with the Chinese Communist Party.
Observers believe that the fact that several Central and Eastern European leaders declined to attend this year will undermine the Chinese Communist Party’s efforts to bring in Central and Eastern Europe.
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