The European Union and China are expected to hold a high-level summit in China this July, commemorating 50 years of diplomatic relations, a spokesperson for the European Council confirmed on Friday.
Plans for the meeting were initially unveiled in January, prior to the return of US President Donald Trump and the subsequent escalation in global trade tensions following his introduction of sweeping tariffs.
“We are working with China to agree on a date, and the summit is likely to take place in the second half of July,” said the spokesperson from the European Council, which represents the EU’s 27 member states.
The summit comes at a complex moment for the EU, which finds itself navigating between growing trade pressures from Washington and its own strategic concerns about Beijing. European leaders are eager to avoid falling foul of US tariffs while simultaneously seeking to diversify trade partnerships and address long-standing economic issues with China.
Earlier on Friday, Chinese President Xi Jinping called on the EU to join forces with Beijing in opposing what he described as “unilateral bullying” — a veiled criticism of Trump’s tariff policies.
While EU-China summits are typically held on a regular basis, no such high-level meeting occurred in 2024. The upcoming talks are set to be attended by the heads of the European Council and the European Commission, as well as senior Chinese officials, and are expected to cover a range of economic and political topics.
