Europe's relevance for stability in East Asia

The framework of EU-China political dialogue was formally established in 1994 through an exchange of letters with the purpose of sharing views on issues of common concern. This was related to the EU’s revised outlook of China’s role in the world. The remarkable success of China’s reform policy, implemented since the end of the 1970s, convinced the EU that China is a strong emerging power in the international scene. In the meantime, China was pleased to see the ratification of the Maastricht Treaty among the Member States and with the success of the EU’s regional integration process. To a certain degree, the attraction was growing between the two.

The dialogue was upgraded in 1998 when the first summit meeting was held, at which both sides agreed to hold such summit meetings on an annual basis. After a second exchange of letters in April 2002, China and the EU decided to formally update the framework of their political dialogue into a regular, structured series of meetings at several levels, which constitutes the legal basis for the current dialogue.