Strategic Rivalry over Eastern and Southeastern Europe
With Deliveries of Vaccines, Beijing strengthens its position in Eastern and Southeastern Europe –to Berlin s dismay. BELGRADE/BEIJING/BERLIN | | chinajugoslawien
BELGRADE/BEIJING/BERLIN (Own report) - China, in view of the EU s vaccine disaster, is offering Covid-19 vaccines also to other Eastern and Southeastern European nations, in addition to Serbia and Hungary. This is the result of yesterday s 17 +1 summit meeting, to which representatives of 17 Eastern and Southeastern European countries met with China s President Xi Jinping in a video conference. Over the past nine years, Beijing has been strengthening its relationships in the region with the 17 +1 format. Last year, trade with the participating countries had increased by 8.4 percent, in spite of the corona crisis, to reach a volume of more than US $103 billion, and Chinese investments in the area have again increased, despite the massiv