The European Union and China agreed today to hold a summit soon, marking an improvement in relations strained by Europe's warm reception last year for Tibet's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.
China cancelled a December summit with the 27-nation bloc to show anger over a meeting between the Dalai Lama and French president Nicolas Sarkozy, who then held the EU's rotating presidency.
"We have decided today we will soon have a new summit between the European Union and China," European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso told a joint news conference with Chinese premier Wen Jiabao.
The summit will be held in the Czech Republic, which took over the EU presidency from France this month, and will take place soon after the London G20 summit on April 2nd, one envoy said.
China calls the Dalai Lama a separatist, blames him for unrest in Tibet last year and has tried to stop him from meeting foreign leaders. The Dalai Lama has long said he wants autonomy for Tibet, not outright independence.
Mr Barroso said the EU and China had also agreed to hold a high-level meeting on trade in April. China is a major EU trading partner but relations are often strained by anti-dumping measures imposed by the bloc, some of whose members are afraid of cheap imports.
Mr Wen and Mr Barroso said they agreed on the need for a global approach in trying to overcome the financial crisis.
They also discussed climate change with members of the EU's executive before a planned meeting with Czech prime minister Mirek Topolanek.
On his first visit to Brussels in five years, Mr Wen also signed a number of bilateral agreements with Mr Barroso covering counterfeiting and piracy, illegal logging, mine safety and civil aviation.
Reuters