Li: China, EU should jointly safeguard multilateralism, free trade

China and the European Union should jointly safeguard multilateralism and free trade system and promote trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, Premier Li Keqiang said on Monday.

Li made the remarks in a meeting with the visiting European Commission Vice-President Jyrki Katainen.

Li said China stands ready to increase coordination with the EU against the background of increasingly prominent unstable and uncertain factors in the world.

He said as the world's major economies, China and EU are each other's largest sources of import and major export market, and this year marks the 15th anniversary of the establishment of comprehensive strategic partnership between the two parties.

The two parties should jointly make contributions to economic globalization and the recovery in growth of world economy, and send out a signal of stability and positive development, he said.

Li said he looks forward to positive and pragmatic outcomes to be achieved at the China-EU leaders' meeting next month, especially in pushing forward talks on China-EU investment agreement and coping with climate change.

Katainen said EU and China should jointly oppose trade protectionism and safeguard multilateralism and free trade under the current circumstances, adding that he hopes the two parties can jointly work toward positive progress in talks on EU-China investment agreement, according to a press statement released after the meeting.