ZAGREB, Croatia, April 11 (NNN-AGENCIES) – Chinese Premier, Li Keqiang, said that, China will insist on open tendering, when carrying out infrastructure cooperation with European Union (EU) member states, and will abide by EU standards and rules.
Li made the remarks during his meeting with Croatian President, Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic, to whom the Chinese premier first extended the greetings from Chinese President, Xi Jinping.
On infrastructure cooperation, Li said, China will ensure projects completed with high quality, and strive for mutual benefits, win-win and all-win cooperation in this area.
An important consensus reached, in the just-concluded 21st China-EU leaders’ meeting is that, investment should be open to both sides and non-discriminating, which the China-EU cooperation should comply with, he added.
Li said, China and Croatia always stick to treating each other equally, with mutual respect based on mutual benefits and win-win principles.
China appreciates that President Kitarovic pays great attention to the development of China-Croatia relationship, said the premier.
Noting that China-Croatia cooperation is equal, open, inclusive and has huge development potential, Li said, China is willing to strengthen the alignment of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) with Croatia’s Three Seas Initiative (TSI), and continuously deepen bilateral practical cooperation in all areas.
For her part, Grabar-Kitarovic said Croatia and China share a profound traditional friendship and amicable bilateral relations.
Grabar-Kitarovic said, Li’s visit has achieved fruitful results and injected new impetus into the development of China-Croatia relationship.
Croatia welcomes Chinese companies to invest in the country and carry out port cooperation, among others, said Grabar-Kitarovic, adding that, Croatia will not discriminate any state enterprise.
Grabar-Kitarovic said, the Peljesac Bridge project is a symbol of friendship between people of the two countries, and is a large-scale infrastructure project constructed in an EU country by a Chinese company, through open tendering and in compliance with EU laws and standards.
Croatia is willing to better align the TSI with the China-proposed BRI, as well as, the cooperation mechanism between China and Central Eastern European Countries (CEEC), to promote Croatia-China and Europe-China practical cooperation to achieve new development, she said.– NNN-AGENCIES
