Symposium celebrates 50 years of Greece, China diplomatic relations

A symposium celebrating 50 years of Greece - China diplomatic relations was held at the Aikaterini Laskaridis Foundation (ALF) in Piraeus on Friday.

Titled "China and Greece: From Ancient Civilizations to Modern Partnership", the symposium was held at ALF's Historical Library in the context of the foundation's 'CASS-ALF Centre for China Studies', created in 2019 in collaboration with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS).

Speakers included Greek Minister of Development & Investments Adonis Georgiadis, Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister for Economic Diplomacy & Openness Kostas Fragogiannis, and Greek Ambassador to China George Iliopoulos. Addressing the event on behalf of the People’s Republic of China was Chinese Ambassador to Greece Xiao Junzheng and Secretary General of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences Zhao Qi.

Speaking at the symposium, People's Republic of China Ambassador to Greece Xiao Junzheng noted that the two countries "must pursue mutual beneficial and win-win cooperation, which calls on us to align the construction of the 'Belt & Road' initiative with the 'Greece 2.0' plan, and expand bilateral cooperation in areas such as shipping, energy, infrastructure, green and digital economy."

Mutual learning was another aspect of the two countries' continued synergy that was mentioned by Junzheng, "which involves dialogues between civilizations, people-to-people exchanges," and "the deepening cooperation in education, youth and tourism." Cultivating "more new forces of China-Greece friendship," was also stressed by the Chinese diplomat.

The symposium was under the aegis of the Chinese embassy in Greece, and was also held in Beijing on the same day.