On his first day of his official visit to China, the Prime Minister Antonis Samaras has announced a number of transnational deals in telecommunications and shipping with Chinese firms.
Mr. Samaras is going to negotiate deals with representatives of top Chinese firms such as Cosco, China Development Bank, the national railway and telecommunications companies. These deals involve the exchange of technical know-how in networking and infrastructures.
Mr. Samaras was invited to speak at the Beijing Academy of Arts, where he stated that “Greece is China’s natural gate to Europe” and that “I would not be here if Greece hadn’t changed its course”. The PM explained to Chinese students that the austerity measures were necessary since the debt had increased in excess and that the Greece’s main problem is unemployment. Mr. Samaras expressed his hopes in tourism and the estimated 17 million tourists to help rejuvenate the economy.
The Prime Minister commented that the strategic relationship between the two countries cannot have a limited temporal scope and that he is seeking out a long-term strategic alliance. While speaking on state Chinese television network, Mr. Samaras spoke of the two countries having marked history “in eons and millennia, when others count their history in decades” and highlighted the global importance of historical Greek and Chinese divs such as Confucius and Plato.
Earlier in the day Mr. Samaras was guided in the Forbidden City with his envoy of government partners and journalists, where he expressed his enthusiasm for Chinese culture and achievements.
