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Chinese Premier Li Qiang met with Greek Deputy Prime Minister Kostis Hatzidakis on the island of Rhodes, Greece, on July 4, 2025, reported Xinhua. China stands ready to strengthen the bond of cooperation with Greece, Chinese Premier Li Qiang said.
During his meeting with Greek Deputy Prime Minister Kostis Hatzidakis, Li also said China is willing to work with Greece to leverage complementary advantages, advance the implementation of the plan for the Port of Piraeus in a high-quality manner, and promote more optimized and balanced development of the bilateral trade.
During the meeting, he noted that Chinese President Xi Jinping met with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis during his visit to China in November 2023 and reached important consensus on deepening bilateral relations.
Over the past two years, Li said, China and Greece have actively implemented the outcomes of the visit and promoted high-quality development of the Belt and Road cooperation, delivering more benefits to the peoples of both countries.
Noting that next year marks the 20th anniversary of the China-Greece comprehensive strategic partnership, Li said China is willing to work with Greece to continue firmly supporting each other’s core interests and major concerns, expand practical cooperation in various fields and achieve more concrete results.
China is also ready to work with Greece to enhance cooperation in such fields as clean energy, power transmission and transformation, and artificial intelligence (AI), and foster new drivers for economic growth, said Li, adding that China supports and encourages more capable Chinese enterprises to actively invest in Greece in accordance with market principles.
The Chinese premier also encouraged both sides to promote mutual learning between civilizations, facilitate tourism and other people-to-people exchanges, and enhance the friendship between the two peoples.
For his part, Hatzidakis said that Greece and China are both ancient civilizations, and Greece attaches great importance to developing its relations with China.
Noting that Greece is willing to implement the consensus reached by the two heads of state, he said that Greece stands ready to further enhance high-level exchanges with China, deepen practical cooperation in such areas as trade, investment, shipping, energy and tourism, promote people-to-people exchanges, strengthen dialogue between civilizations, so as to advance the development of Greece-China comprehensive strategic partnership.
The Chinese premier left Beijing on the same day for Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to attend the 17th BRICS Summit upon invitation, making a stopover on the island of Rhodes, Greece.
Comment: The fact that Wang Yi has devoted time and attention to Greece in his busy schedule is due to both pragmatic Chinese commercial interests and geopolitical considerations. The talks focused on China’s expanding involvement in the port of Piraeus, which paves the way for Chinese goods and influence through North Macedonia, Serbia and Hungary to the heart of Europe.
Of even greater interest is the topic of mutual understanding between the two ancient civilizations. China is increasingly raising this topic at international and bilateral forums, persistently pushing its Global Civilization Initiative. It is the third such initiative, after the global development and global security initiatives, and an important part of the concept of a community of shared destiny. The topic of ancient civilizations, which in the Chinese interpretation also has a certain ideological charge, pleasantly caresses the ears of Wang Yi’s Greek interlocutors, who willingly accept the discussion.
The topic of civilizational exchange between China and Europe was also raised by Wang Yi during his talks in Paris on July 4 with his French counterpart.
