RAILWAY REVEALED: Chinese Premier Li Keqiang (second right) and CEE leaders visit an exhibition of Chinese railways and equipment in Bucharest, Romania, on November 26 (YAO DAWEI)

Traditional friendship, a common desire for development and shared needs constitute the glue that binds China and Central Eastern European (CEE) countries together.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang kicked off his first state visit to CEE in late November following the Third Plenary Session of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, which detailed the nation's major targets of future reform and development. On November 26, Premier Li and 16 of his CEE counterparts forged a guideline to expand their cooperation in political, trade, investment, finance, science and cultural exchanges. With this blueprint, CEE countries will link up on the China expressway of rapid development, while China hastens its pace of foreign investment and technological cooperation with the region.

Mutually strategic moves

Most CEE countries established diplomatic relationships with China since its founding in 1949. Over the past decades, China and CEE countries have established various exchange mechanisms that cemented political relations between all sides.

"Friendly political relations and vigorous economic cooperation are expected to complete a positive circle of China-CEE relationships," Cui Hongjian, Director of European Studies with the China Institute of International Studies (CIIS), told Beijing Review.

The traditional friendship has now been injected with vigorous multi-faceted cooperation. Premier Li arrived in Bucharest on November 25 for his visit to Romania and the China-CEE leaders' meeting there. This was the first visit to the country by the head of Chinese Government in the past 19 years.

Describing his trip to Romania as an endeavor to improve mutual political trust, Li suggested three proposals for developing bilateral relations: deepening practical cooperation, seeking mutually beneficial and win-win collaboration based on strong economic complementarity, and making the bilateral relationship an example in promoting relations between China and Europe as a whole. His Romanian counterpart, Victor Ponta, echoed that Romania is willing to be China's honest partner in Central and Eastern Europe as well as the European Union.

Cui from the CIIS said both China and CEE countries need to conduct reforms to realize development. Their traditional friendship has provided a positive background to boost cooperation to the benefit of all sides, he said.

China and CEE countries have a common desire to increase collaboration, with the knowledge that two joined hands are always stronger than one. Ruan Zongze, Vice President of CIIS, noted that both China and CEE countries are at a stage of development transformation in which heightening cooperation would enable each side to fully utilize the other's advantages. CEE countries, most of which are emerging economies with similar GDP per capita as China, are also at a crucial transitional stage to a market economy, and their social and economic development is in urgent need of advanced technology and funds.

Moreover, 11 of the 16 CEE countries are member states of the EU and the rest also intend to join the regional bloc. They need to shorten the gap with developed EU members to better adapt to the organization's integration rules. "After the financial crisis, old EU members are no longer able to provide capital assistance. It is natural that CEE countries are turning to China for new investors and as an export market," said Shen Jiru, a senior research fellow with Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS).

For China, exploring the CEE market is a strategic choice in shifting its economic development pattern, adjusting its economic structure and promoting product grade, said Shen.

CEE countries have big market and development potential while China has extra capital and technologies, which is a key point of convergence. The guideline signed on November 26 at the second China-CEE leaders' meeting seeks to expand investment and boost infrastructure collaboration. Plus, China has promised to provide a $10-billion special credit line to CEE countries, which will become a firm support to CEE's development demands.