The summit that barely happened: Why EU and China still talk

WHEN expectations are at rock bottom, simply showing up counts as progress. That is the story of this week’s EU-China summit in Beijing – a hastily truncated, one-day event after China’s President Xi Jinping declined to travel to Brussels. The absence of a formal joint communique and the palpable lack of deliverables should not obscure a critical fact that this meeting still matters.

The reality of interdependence

Despite rising tensions, the European Union (EU) and China together account for roughly a third of global gross domestic product and 30 per cent of world trade. Their economies are intertwined, and their geopolitical futures increasingly entangled.

Whether on trade, climate action, or global security, EU-China relations have outsized consequences that go far beyond the boundaries of Brussels and Beijing. That is why, even in a climate of mistrust and mutual suspicion, face-to-face dialogue at the highest level is a meaningful step forward.