Asia Centre

The 6th Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) and the 9th EU-China Summit both take pace in Helsinki in September. Several bilateral and multilateral informal dialogues have focused on the strategic dimension of the Sino-European dialogue since it has become a goal for both sides in 2004.

In 2006, Asia Centre in Paris, the CER (Center for European Reform) in London and the DGAP (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Auswärtige Politik) in Berlin, as well as the CASS (Chinese Academy of Social Sciences) in Beijing and other Chinese think tanks, have worked together on long-term strategic issues that are contentious but have the potential to foster fruitful co-operation, beyond short-term questions such as trade disputes or the EU arms embargo on China.

The available “EU-China Compact*” is designed to set out a concrete agenda for co-operation, by concentrating on some of the most important issues of concern on the international agenda – global and regional governance, development, energy and non-proliferation.

* This document draws on the ideas that emerged from our discussions, but we have not asked individual researchers or the institutions they represent to sign up to all its recommendations.