European expert: G20 summit to be stage of confidence-building

Source: Xinhua | 03-15-2009 14:03

by Zhang Bihong

BRUSSELS, March 14 (Xinhua) -- The upcoming G20 Summit in London will serve mainly as a confidence-building stage, says a Belgian expert in political and economic affairs.

"Confidence-building is extremely important," Jonathan Holslag, head of research at the Brussels Institute of Contemporary China Studies and an expert at the EU-China Academic Network, told Xinhua in an exclusive interview on Wednesday.

What's more important behind the "big and visible G20 meeting is diplomacy," Holslag said, citing the upcoming EU-China summit.

"For instance, in May we are going to have a very important meeting in the Czech Republic, the EU-China summit," he said, "that will be organized with a high-level economic dialogue."

Holslag said he thinks the May meetings, especially the EU-China summit, will be more productive than the G20 gathering. Those meetings "can make a strong signal towards the rest of the world that protectionism is not desirable," he said.