Chinese Premier Li Keqiang attended the third China-Central and Eastern European (CEE) Leaders' Meeting and held talks with prime ministers of sixteen countries in Belgrade, Serbia.　On Dec.17, China, Serbia, Hungary and Macedonia declared that they will join together to build a land-sea express route .

Li's meeting with top leaders of several CEE countries is the last high-level meeting between China and Europe in 2014. Li's visit to the EU embodies China's all-round, pragmatic and cooperative diplomacy in the new era as Li's visit consolidates China's efforts to cooperate with European countries and promotes the comprehensive and balanced development of Sino-European ties.

China and Europe will focus on pragmatic cooperation in the future. Li signed a flurry of cooperation agreements and proposed setting up a new framework for joint investment and financing between China and CEE countries. In addition, Li pledged an investment fund of 3 billion U.S. dollars to provide finance to Central and Eastern Europe. Li's visit bears the fruit of pragmatic cooperation and shows that the development of Sino-European relations should be based on pragmatic cooperation. In fact, the ideal of pragmatic diplomacy is deeply rooted in China's diplomacy with other countries throughout the world.

Close Sino-European cooperation can be realized by increased interconnectivity between China and Europe. For example, the construction of the land-sea express route serves the interests of the people along the route and the four countries involved, and also helps China's Belt and Road Initiative link with ideals, plans and projects to promote future Sino-European cooperation.

Li's visit will make the all-round strategic partnership between China and Europe more meaningful, and lay the foundations for higher-level Sino-European cooperation. Li has sought economic cooperation to achieve mutually beneficial results during his visit to the EU. Increasing economic cooperation has been a source of strength to the bilateral comprehensive strategic partnership in the past few years.

China's cooperation with EU countries will help upgrade the infrastructure of these countries and create a new engine to promote Sino-European ties. With the hearts of Chinese people and European people drawn together by the land-sea express route, China and Europe will expand cooperation with each other and have a greatrer chance of achieving shared prosperity and stability.

This article was edited and translated from 《总理出访助推中欧携手圆梦》, source: youth.cn, author:Yang Fei