"We rejoice for this ministerial meeting with Yang Jiechi, the new Minister of Foreign Affairs" of Peking, "and we hope he will let us establish excellent business relations so as to extend our strategic partnership with China". Today, Benita Ferrero-Waldner is attending the summit with the new head of the Chinese diplomacy; along with the commissioner for external relations, the meeting will be attended by the German Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Javier Solana, High EU Representative for foreign policy. During the meeting in Hamburg (Germany), "the discussion will focus on the developments of the bilateral relations" between the EU and the Asian country, with a view to negotiating a long-term partnership agreement. "In addition, we will speak of human rights, Taiwan, climate change and international and regional issues", such as Iran, the Middle East and Kosovo. Ferrero-Waldner expressed "the wish to strengthen cooperation in terms of world-scale challenges, trade, climate change, energy security and Africa". Today’s is the third meeting in under a year: the EU-China summit of September 2006 had been followed by Ferrero-Waldner’s visit to Peking last January.
