In an interview with BTA's Valentina Dobrincheva here on Tuesday, Ambassador of the People's Republic of China to Bulgaria Dai Qingli said her country sees the EU as a key partner. The ambassador participated in a Bulgarian-Chinese forum in Varna, organized by the One Generation, One Road initiative.

"We have always believed that mutually beneficial cooperation should be the defining feature of China-EU relations, because we have no strategic conflict of interest and have every interest in pursuing mutually beneficial cooperation," she said. She expressed regret that the European Commission is engaged in protectionist moves against Chinese products, especially electric vehicles, and that anti-subsidy tariffs have recently been imposed. "We still hope that something can be achieved through negotiations, but in any case we would prefer to deal with these trade frictions in a reasonable and mutually acceptable way. We hope that this can work," she commented.

The ambassador sees tremendous potential in cooperation between China and Varna at many different levels, for example in infrastructure and connectivity development. According to her words, Varna is a strategic port on the Black Sea and could be a key point on a sea route from China to Europe. China would be interested in working with Varna to improve its infrastructure, including ports, roads and railways.

There is also a strong interest in introducing traditional Chinese medicine to Varna as well as cultural exchange. "We will work with the mayor and the municipality to try to advance our cooperation," she noted. She recalled that Varna has been twinned with the key Chinese port city of Ningbo for twenty years and expressed the hope that at the Bulgarian-Chinese forum, where there are representatives of other regions, fruitful discussions will be held on future city-to-city partnerships .