I do not know how to apologise, but I had to do what I had to do this morning because we are trying to resolve what we call the Greek crisis in Europe and I had to spend some hours on that. I would have preferred to be together with the Prime Minister this morning to address the EU-China Business Summit, but it was not possible. So, on my knees, I am apologising to you, but before apologising to you, I am apologising to the Chinese Prime Minister. I wanted to see him as early as possible because I am a great admirer of China. My first official visit in my former capacity as Luxembourgish Prime Minister to China was in 1996 and I went back to the country five, six, or seven times – I do not even remember, but the Chinese secret services must remember how often I was in China. If the Chinese do not know, ask the Americans, because they do know it exactly; because I was always admiring the performances of this great nation, of the leaders of that nation and although from time to time we have divergences on views, mainly as far as human rights are concerned, I was always strongly believing in the capacity of the Chinese nation and of the Chinese leadership to engage with us on common avenues. So I am happy to meet the Chinese Prime Minister in my new capacity after having met the Chinese President back in November – if I remember it correctly – in the margin of the G20 meeting in Brisbane, Australia.
A solid partnership
I do think that we have to build a solid partnership between the People's Republic and theEuropean Union.
Together we now have one of the world's biggest trading relationships. We have to do more inorder to better interconnect the Chinese and the European Union's economies.
The Chinese do not know it, the European citizens do not know but our trade volume is