Xi defends China’s ‘normal trade’ with Russia in talks with Polish leader Duda
- He also pledges to open market to more agricultural and food products from Poland and says Polish nationals will get 15-day visa-free entry
He said efforts should be made to avoid any expansion or worsening of the conflict, to cool down the situation, and to create the conditions needed for peace talks.
“China is willing to continue to play a constructive role in our own way towards a political settlement of the Ukrainian crisis,” Xi said.
In addition, Xi called for more cooperation on trade, agriculture, the digital economy, green industry and clean energy, according to CCTV.
Xi pledged to open the Chinese market to more agricultural and food products from Poland, and announced that Polish nationals would be granted 15-day visa-free entry to China.
Duda said bilateral diplomatic, political and interpersonal relations between the two nations were “good” and “based on mutual respect”.
“I hope they will always be like this in the future,” he said, while inviting Xi to visit Poland in the first half of next year.
The two leaders also witnessed the signing of several bilateral agreements, including on trade and agriculture, after the talks.
Duda’s five-day visit, which began on Saturday, is his first trip to China in more than two years. He will attend the World Economic Forum meeting in the northeastern city of Dalian in Liaoning province on Tuesday, followed by a stop in financial hub Shanghai.
Trade frictions between Beijing and Brussels are rising, while geopolitical rivalry with the US-led transatlantic alliance Nato has intensified, and there are wider suspicions across European capitals over China’s stance on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Meanwhile, China’s original 17+1 cooperation framework with Central and Eastern European nations has stalled since the Baltic states quit the group.
Before he left for China, Duda signalled that he would lobby the Chinese leadership to play a bigger role in ending the conflict in Ukraine.
“It is no secret that China’s influence – including China’s influence on Russia – is certainly enormous,” he told reporters on Saturday. “Presenting our view on this issue to the chairman, President Xi Jinping, in my opinion is crucial.”
He said geopolitical turmoil was jeopardising China’s belt and road scheme and economic cooperation with Europe, noting that one railway link in the strategy that runs through Ukraine was “obviously affected by the ongoing war”.
Duda said another railway through Belarus was also under threat as Minsk was pushing a growing number of migrants to the border with Poland. “I would like to present this situation to … President Xi Jinping and tell him what the realities are and what we are facing,” he added.
Poland was one of the first in Europe to sign an intergovernmental memorandum of understanding with Beijing to develop the belt and road strategy. Some 90 per cent of trains on the CRE pass through or have Poland as a destination.
China is Poland’s second-largest trading partner, after neighbouring Germany. It is China’s top trading partner in Central and Eastern Europe.
China’s imports from Poland fell by 0.7 per cent in US dollar terms in the first five months of the year from the same time in 2023, according to Chinese customs data. But China’s exports to Poland grew by 2 per cent.
Warsaw’s trade deficit with the world’s No 2 economy widened by 0.7 per cent from a year ago to US$13.6 billion in the January-May period.