Beijing - Chinese President Hu Jintao and European Union leaders on Tuesday discussed trade, climate change and other issues, promising to continue building a "strategic partnership," EU officials said. Hu and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso praised the quality of relations between China and the European Union despite differences over the value of China's currency, the officials said.
The meeting in Beijing followed a summit of Chinese and European Union leaders on Monday in the southern city of Nanjing, where they vowed to work more closely on finance, climate change and other global challenges.
"Global issues such as climate change, financial crisis, energy and resource security, food security, the environment and public health security have been increasingly prominent," said a joint statement issued after the summit.
"It is becoming increasingly urgent for the international community to deepen cooperation and coordinate efforts in tackling these challenges," the statement said.
The two sides signed five bilateral agreements covering technological cooperation, near-zero emission coal utilization, energy efficiency and construction standards, the sustainable development of China's trade and investment, and environmental management.
After talks in Nanjing on Sunday, EU leaders said they had failed to win a commitment from China for an "orderly and gradual appreciation" of its national currency, the yuan.
Europe believes the Chinese currency is overvalued, which makes EU exports to China more expensive and keeps the price of Chinese goods sold in Europe artificially low.
China has more or less pegged its currency to the US dollar since the middle of 2008, but the euro has increased in value against the yuan around 20 per cent since the beginning of 2009.
