The EU will not seek to boost economic links with China despite growing tensions with the US, Kaja Kallas, EU foreign policy chief, told reporters on Thursday.
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“China is posing a long-term challenge because they are using economically coercive practices towards our markets,” Kallas said, in an apparent reference to Beijing’s export controls on strategically critical rare earths that have hammered Europe’s industrial base over the past year.
The EU should instead seek to “reach out to … different countries” to boost its economic resilience, she added. “We really need to build our partnerships, but at the same time, not create any new dependencies because your dependencies are also your vulnerabilities.”
Europe “learned [this] the hard way” after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 exposed the bloc’s energy dependence on Moscow, she noted.
Kallas’ comments came as UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Beijing on Thursday. The Chinese leader told his British counterpart that both countries should “transcend differences” and “open up new vistas for China-Britain relations”, according to Chinese state media.
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