BEIJING hosted on Monday the 20th annual China-EU political and business summit. This landmark event provided a timely, important opportunity for the two powers to develop a more unified front on a range of issues that they are in dispute with the Trump team over - from trade to climate change - to leverage each other against Washington after the US president called them both key "foes" on Sunday.

European Council President Donald Tusk noted that Monday's event coincided with the Donald Trump-Vladimir Putin summit in Helsinki, asserting that "we are all aware of the fact that the architecture of the world is changing before our very eyes". He urged commitment to a "rules-based order" to prevent "conflict and chaos", and potentially even "hot wars".

The meeting, held in the framework of the jointly agreed 2020 strategic agenda for cooperation, saw Premier Li Keqiang lead the Chinese delegation meeting with Mr Tusk and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker. One of the key prizes under discussion was a potential future EU-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment - and progress was made towards realising this goal in coming years. Given the growing concerns about trade wars, international trade was a key discussion area with both Beijing and Brussels now in potentially hugely disruptive spats against Washington. Despite EU-China disagreements over issues such as subsidies and market access, both sets of leaders put on a unified front in support of the multilateral system with the World Trade Organisation at its core.