(SONG CHEN / CHINA DAILY)

That President Xi Jinping hosted the online summit between the heads of state and government of China and Central and Eastern European countries on Tuesday has sent a strong signal that cooperation between China and the CEE countries has been elevated to a higher level.

The summit, the ninth for the China-CEEC, is the second for the 17+1, with Greece becoming a full participant in the cooperation mechanism at the 2019 summit. It was originally scheduled to be held in Beijing in 2020 but was deferred due to the novel coronavirus pandemic.

With the COVID-19 pandemic still raging in many parts of the world and the global economy still struggling, the virtual summit was a confidence booster for the international community. The rising trade between China and the CEE countries under the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative in recent years, and their joint efforts to fight the pandemic have proved that free trade and multilateral cooperation are the best remedies for the global health crisis and economic recession.

China and the CEE countries need to further tap into their cooperation potential in various fields, by upgrading their cooperation framework.

What is now known as Central and Eastern Europe evolved from the former geographical region of Eastern Europe, which had a total of 13 countries in 2006. The relationship between China and the CEE countries can be divided into two stages: the pre-2012 period during which they repaired ties and established principles for interaction and cooperation, and the post-2012 period during which they have promoted the comprehensive and in-depth development of overall China-CEEC relations and also strengthened ties at the bilateral level.

After the turbulent 1990-94 period of socio-political upheaval and national restructuring in Central and Eastern Europe, China's relations with the CEE countries needed to be restored and improved.

After former president Jiang Zemin visited Hungary in 1995 and former president Hu Jintao visited Poland, Hungary and Romania in 2004, China and the CEE countries agreed on the principles for developing all-round cooperation in various fields on the basis of equality, mutual benefit and win-win results. Guided by these principles, bilateral relations between China and the CEE countries have made considerable progress. But China's ties with the CEE countries were basically on the bilateral level before 2012 and there was no framework for overall cooperation between China and the CEE countries as a whole.

In April 2012, the first Leaders' Meeting of China and Central and Eastern European Countries was held in Poland, which established the"16+1" cooperation framework. Under this framework, the CEE countries not only came under one umbrella but also their geographical area was extended with the inclusion of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, which were formerly part of the Soviet Union. All bilateral and multilateral cooperation between China and the CEE countries is now carried out under this framework.

Since the 5th China-CEEC Leaders' Meeting in Latvia in November 2016, the European Union, Austria, Switzerland, Greece, Belarus and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, in addition to China and the original 16 CEE countries, have attended the meeting as observers, extending the China-CEEC cooperation mechanism to other areas.

And after Greece officially joined the China-CEEC cooperation platform at the 8th Leaders' Meeting in Croatia in 2019, the"16+1" framework became "17+1", extending deeper into Southern Europe.

Thanks to the constant upgrading of the cooperative framework, the scope of China-CEEC cooperation has been expanding. Twelve of the 17 CEE countries are also EU members, and Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Northern Macedonia, Albania and Montenegro could soon join the European economic bloc. But since these countries may be worried about their EU membership and EU rules when dealing with China, their cooperation with China could be affected to some extent.

In fact, China-CEEC cooperation is showing less and less Central and Eastern European features, and more and more features distinctive to the EU. The EU has participated in the "17+1" cooperation framework as an observer, and at the end of December, China and the EU wrapped up the negotiations on the Comprehensive Agreement on Investment after seven years.

Given the major changes in the scope, degree and modalities of cooperation, China and the CEE countries need to revise and upgrade the cooperation principles to meet the demands of the changed situation. The fact that China is the first country to recover from the pandemic and has wrapped up of the China-EU investment agreement negotiations has created the right conditions for upgrading the China-CEEC cooperation framework.

Hopefully, China will deepen its connection with Europe through a revised and upgraded China-CEEC cooperation framework, and the world as a whole through the Belt and Road Initiative, so as to promote free trade, boost development, maintain world peace and build a community with a shared future for mankind.

Yet we should not forget that Central and Eastern Europe is a region with diversities, differences and complex internal and external relations. Heavily influenced by the European and American values and norms, some CEE countries prefer to side with the US when push comes to shove. Which makes it all the more important to urgently upgrade the China-CEEC cooperation framework.

The author is a professor at the School of International Studies, Peking University.

The views don't necessarily reflect those of China Daily.