Membership in the European Union is an important foreign policy strategic goal of Montenegro. In this sense, can cooperation with China affect the process of Montenegro's accession to the EU? In my opinion, the European Union and China represent two big resources and two big markets that Montenegro can fully use in the process of European integration.
First of all, mutual benefit and win-win results are the main and basic melody of China-EU cooperation. China attaches great importance to the development of relations with the European Union. This year marks the 20th anniversary of the start of the comprehensive strategic partnership between China and the EU. The Premier of the State Council of the People's Republic of China Li Jiang chose Europe for his first foreign official visit last month, which reflects the importance of the strategic partnership between China and the EU and brings new opportunities for the comprehensive improvement of the level of economic and trade cooperation. China has been the largest trading partner of the European Union for three years in a row. According to Chinese statistics, the volume of bilateral trade between China and the EU will reach nearly 850 billion US dollars in 2022. By the end of 2022, the volume of China-EU two-way investment has exceeded $230 billion. From January to June of this year, 8.641 freight express trains ran on the China-Europe route, and 936.000 TEU containers of goods were delivered to as many as 216 cities in 25 European countries. China and Europe have formed a strong economic symbiosis.
China firmly supports the process of European integration and gives full support to Montenegro in its accession to the EU as soon as possible. Montenegro's accession to the European Union goes hand in hand with the development of bilateral relations with China. Not long after my arrival in Montenegro, I spoke about "three positions that are not in conflict": first, Europe's commitment to the idea of strategic independence and the significant role it plays in the international community is not in conflict with China's peaceful development; secondly, the accession of Montenegro to the EU does not contradict the parallel development of bilateral relations with China; and thirdly, the foreign and security policy of Montenegro, which is aligned with the EU's unique position, does not contradict taking an objective and balanced approach when it comes to specific issues related to China.
Then, Chinese-style modernization provides a steady boost to the world economy. After years of hard work, China has grown into the world's second largest economy, the largest trading power and the largest producer in the world, and is an important source of energy for the stable growth of the world economy. Over the past 10 years, China's average annual economic growth has reached 6,2%, and its average contribution to world economic growth has exceeded 30%, making it the largest engine driving global economic growth. Since the beginning of this year, the Chinese economy has shown a clear upward trend. In the first half of the year, China's gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 5,5% year-on-year. Certain international organizations and institutions have also raised their forecasts for China's economic growth this year, thus showing their confidence in China's development prospects.
In recent years, China has made remarkable achievements in the construction of transportation infrastructure, and has built the world's largest high-speed rail network and the world's largest highway network. By the end of 2022, the total mileage of high-speed railways in China will reach 42.000 kilometers, and the total mileage of highways will reach 177.000 kilometers. In the area of electricity production from renewable sources, in 2022 China's new energy production capacity increased by 207,2 billion kWh, which accounts for 70% of the total increased capacity, thus the main part of the increased electricity production capacity in China comes from renewable sources. Of this, the total installed capacity of wind energy and solar energy exceeds 100 million kilowatts, which accounts for 62,5% of the total installed power for the production of electricity from renewable sources. In the field of new energy vehicles, the total amount of electric vehicles produced in China has recently exceeded 20 million, thus China's new energy vehicles have entered a high-quality, large-scale development stage at the global level. Europe is an important destination for the export of electric vehicles from China. Exports of new energy vehicles from China to Europe in 2022 accounted for 36% of total vehicle exports. In the future, China will continue to play a leading role in the field of infrastructure and new energy to provide strong momentum to the recovery and growth of the world economy.
Third, there are broad prospects for practical cooperation between China and Montenegro. For Montenegro, the development of bilateral relations with China will help to accelerate the dynamics of EU accession. The expansion of cooperation with China will surely bring Montenegro more opportunities for economic development, boost the expectations of the international community regarding the future development prospects of Montenegro and help the process of Montenegro's accession to the European Union. At the moment, China and Montenegro are achieving fruitful cooperation in various fields. The priority section of the "Princess Xenia" highway has certainly already positioned itself as a leading joint project of China and Montenegro within the framework of cooperation through the "Belt and Road" initiative. Since it was put into traffic in July last year, more than 2,2 million vehicles have passed through it safely. The project of reconstruction and expansion of the main road M2 between Budva and Tivat, whose contractor is a Chinese company, will soon begin construction, which will continue to write a new chapter in the cooperation between the two countries in the field of infrastructure. In addition, the Možura wind power plant project, in which a Chinese company participated, is functioning well, and the ecological transformation project of the thermal power plant in Pljevlje is progressing smoothly, all of which provide assistance and encouragement to Montenegro as an ecological country.
Facing the future, China and Montenegro should continue friendship through time and space and achieve cooperation not limited to specific areas. Chinese companies have high-quality production capacity in the field of infrastructure, including highways and high-speed rail, and have obvious technological advantages in the latest industries, such as renewable electricity generation and new energy vehicle production. Those companies have a strong willingness to cooperate with Montenegro. China is willing to continue to promote all interested Chinese companies with strength and reputation to invest in Montenegro, help Montenegro strengthen its connection with the countries of the Western Balkans, take full advantage of its location on the Adriatic coast, and strengthen development and cooperation with China in the fields of tourism, education, science and technology, medicine and other fields, in order to provide new opportunities for the development and cooperation of the two countries.
The author is the ambassador of the Republic of China in Montenegro
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