China's Wang Yi Europe visit:"China know much better the EU than we Europeans know China"

CGTN Europe interviewed Ana Palacio, former Foreign Minister of Spain

Transcript

00:00Well, Ana Palacio is a former Spanish foreign minister.

00:05I think that there is a personal diplomacy that Minister Wen Ji has proven to be very good at,

00:15and that I hope that his counterparts, both in the European Union, Kajakalas, and in Germany,

00:23which is not just the engine of the European Union, it's also the strongest commercial trade relationship with China and France.

00:37France is also important because France is France.

00:40It's le couple franco-allemand, and this is the core of the European Union.

00:45So I think it's extremely important, and I hope that this will be productive.

00:52I personally think that China knows much better the European Union than we Europeans know China,

01:03and in the end, you have to know in order to trust,

01:07and you have to trust in order to have productive relations that are not just transactional.

01:17And I think that this is about that.

01:20This is about sitting down, understanding that we have two different systems with China,

01:26that China is going through hurdles, European Union is going through hurdles,

01:34and how can we overcome or at least make this distance lower?

01:41I think that with differences, but both China and the European Union are interested in keeping rules-based or just system.

01:54And I think that the global south, which means most of the world, are also on these wavelengths.

02:02Paradoxically, what we are seeing now is that the United States that was the founder,

02:07the creator of this system, is now having, let's say, a position that is contrary to this system,

02:16which means that we have more to discuss with China in order to reach a middle ground,

02:25overcoming the differences that the systems just take.