Senior Dutch official advocates partnership with China to tackle global challenges

ROOSENDAAL, the Netherlands, March 23 (Xinhua) -- A senior official from the Dutch Foreign Ministry on Tuesday advocated a partnership with China to tackle global challenges such as climate change.

Peter Potman, deputy director general for foreign economic relations at the ministry, made the remarks at an event held Tuesday night in Roosendaal, a city in the southern Netherlands, to mark the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

Potman, a veteran diplomat who once served as the Dutch consul-general in Shanghai, said China is a fast-growing market for Dutch businesses. Its big R&D budgets, large pool of talent and high-quality knowledge infrastructure offer Dutch companies and institutions many opportunities, especially in sectors such as agriculture, health, environment, and logistics, he said.

It is important for the two countries to seize opportunities, pursue cooperation and work together on the basis of shared interests, he said, calling bilateral ties "strong and long-lasting."

Chinese Ambassador to the Netherlands Tan Jian also attended the event. Tan highlighted the "expanding and deepening" cooperation between the two countries over the past five decades.

"Both support multilateralism," Tan said. "Our two countries maintain consultations on major international and regional issues within the frameworks of the UN, G20, WTO and WHO."

"We cooperate closely on climate change, sustainable development goals and many others high on the international development agenda," he added.

Tan noted that over the past 50 years, bilateral trade has grown nearly 1,700 times, from less than 69 million to over 116 billion U.S. dollars, and over the past two years, bilateral trade has increased by 7.8 percent and 27 percent respectively despite the COVID-19 pandemic.

China has been firmly committed to "win-win economic cooperation," Tan said, adding that China, the Netherlands and Europe need each other and should strengthen their partnership of shared interests.