China and the European Union should unite to overcome the global economic crisis, the country's Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said Wednesday.
"Especially in the context of the current international financial crisis, China and the EU should work together to tackle the crisis," he said at the end of a meeting in Lisbon with Portuguese counterpart Luis Amado.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao begins a tour of Europe on Tuesday with visits to Switzerland, Germany, Spain, Britain and the European Union headquarters in Brussels.
But he will not travel to France, whose president, Nicolas Sarkozy, angered Beijing by meeting Tibet's exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama when his country held the rotating EU presidency.
Relations between the two countries hit a low point when Beijing postponed a December summit with the EU due to be hosted in France.
When asked why Wen is not going to France, Yang said the trip includes "several countries and international organisations" and added that "China wants to develop friendly relations with every European country."
Meanwhile Amada said Portugal will help facilitate "dialogue between China and the EU, in trying to overcome the different obstacles which have cropped up in their relations."
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