Exclusive | EU climate chief Frans Timmermans cancels China trip after positive Covid-19 test

The European Commission’s first vice-president was due to resume talks on bilateral cooperation
Last week the bloc’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, also tested positive and had to postpone visit

China-EU relations

Finbarr Berminghamin Brussels

Published: 5:01pm, 17 Apr 2023

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The European Union’s top climate official, Frans Timmermans, has cancelled a visit to China after testing positive for Covid-19.

The first vice-president of the European Commission was supposed to touch down in China on Tuesday to resume talks with Xie Zhenhua, Beijing’s climate chief, about bilateral collaboration on climate-related areas.

However the trip had to be postponed after Timmermans failed a PCR test before he was due to fly to Japan for a meeting of Group of Seven climate and environment ministers on the weekend, according to a source close to the Dutchman, who said he was experiencing cold-like symptoms.

Timmermans was to hold talks with Xie Zhenhua, China’s special envoy for climate change. Photo: Bloomberg

It comes after EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell cancelled a trip to China last week after he also tested positive for Covid-19.

Timmermans saw the visit as a chance to resume face-to-face contact in Beijing with officials he has engaged with throughout the pandemic, given the resumption of commercial flights to the Chinese capital. He was also set to visit the Shanghai International Automobile Industry Exhibition.

Both officials want to reschedule their trips to China, but faced with busy travel schedules and the logistical challenge of arranging days-long itineraries, it is unclear when they will be able to take place.

Borrell – who was set to hold talks with China’s top diplomat Wang Yi, Foreign Minister Qin Gang and defence chief General Li Shangfu, ahead of Li’s ongoing visit to Moscow – also had to miss the G7 foreign ministers meeting in Japan on Monday.

The positive Covid tests interrupt what was an intense rush of European officials to China that has generated a huge debate in Brussels, Paris and beyond over the bloc’s policy towards the world’s second-largest economy.

02:36

French and EU leaders urge China to ‘bring Russia to its senses’ and stop invasion of Ukraine

On a recent three-day state visit to China, French President Emmanuel Macron told reporters that the EU should avoid becoming a “vassal” of the United States on China, especially urging distance concerning any potential military defence of Taiwan.

“Is it in our interest to accelerate on the subject of Taiwan? No. The worst thing would be to think that we Europeans must become followers on this topic and adapt to the American rhythm and a Chinese overreaction,” Macron said.

The remarks caused a stir in Europe and the United States, where some hawkish voices suggested that if the EU did not back the US on Taiwan, then Washington should reconsider its support for Ukraine.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said a Taiwan Strait conflict would be a “horror scenario”. Photo: EPA-EFE

On Friday, in a joint press conference with Qin in China, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said that any conflict in the Taiwan Strait would be a “horror scenario”.

“A military escalation in the Taiwan Strait, through which 50 per cent of world trade flows every day, would be a horror scenario for the entire world,” she said in Beijing.

“The shock wave of such a world economic crisis would also hit China and Germany as special trading nations. We are therefore watching the increasing tensions in the Taiwan Strait with great concern,” Baerbock added.