European Council President Donald Tusk said after meeting with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang that ” the world we were building for decades” has brought about ” peace for Europe, the development of China, and the end of the Cold War between the East and the West.” He emphasized that it is “common duty of Europe and China, America and Russia, not to destroy this order, but to improve it.” He urged “not to start trade wars, which turned into hot conflicts” but “to bravely and responsibly reform the rules-based international order.”
He called on China, Trump and Putin to start the process from reform of the WTO as “there is still time to prevent conflict and chaos.” He pointed to the “dilemma” of “whether to play a tough game such as tariff wars and conflicts in places like Ukraine and Syria, or to look for common solutions based on fair rules.”
Tusk also reiterated that the EU is committed to “modernisation of the WTO” and “propose a comprehensive approach to improving, together with like-minded partners, the functioning of the WTO in crucial areas.” And he called for “like-minded partners” to work together to “strengthen the WTO as an institution and to ensure a level playing field.”
