According to Euractiv, China is organizing a “last minute” high-level summit with heads of Central and Eastern European states under the “17+1” format, to take place “at least online” in February. China plans to discuss a “successful fight against the pandemic” and offer its COVID-19 vaccines.
Now that China has completed the Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI) with the European Union in December, it wants to return to enhancing its involvement with the 17 Eastern and Central European countries in the context of what has been 16+1 platform, until Greece’s accession last year, bringing it to 17. “This is a fresh proposal from the Chinese side,” said a European diplomat Yahoo.news. “China seems to want to ride on the positive Europe-China momentum created by the CAI conclusion.”
