China, EU maintain sound communication, share joint interests: Lagarde

China

China, EU maintain sound communication, share joint interests: Lagarde

2026-10-31 18:25 Last Updated At：20:41

European Central Bank (ECB) President Christine Lagarde has affirmed that China and the European Union maintain active communication and shared economic interests, calling recent trade talks a positive step forward.

Speaking to China Media Group (CMG) on the sidelines of the 2026 Annual Meetings of the IMF and the World Bank Group in Bangkok, Thailand, Lagarde praised the intensive diplomacy behind recent China-EU trade talks. She firmly rejected claims that dialogue with China is impossible, calling the latest developments a positive breakthrough.

The second meeting of the China-EU trade and investment consultation mechanism was held from Oct 8 to 9 in Beijing. The two sides engaged in pragmatic and productive discussions and agreed on a list of outcomes. The list set out 16 specific points of consensus covering trade and investment balance, export controls, intellectual property rights and World Trade Organization (WTO) reform.

"I think that this dialogue that you mentioned and the points that were agreed is the result of intensive work and I pay tribute to the (Chinese) Minister of Trade and to the (European) Commissioner (for Trade and Economic Security) Sefcovic in charge of trade in Europe. I think these two and their teams have worked extensively and with success. So, to those people who say you cannot discuss with China, that's not true. They can be dialogue. I have had my dialogues as well when I was at the IMF and now at the ECB with the PBOC (People's Bank of China), we can have a dialogue. It takes time. We have to progress gently, step after step after step. But I regard this particular development as a very positive one. And you know, I know everybody is focusing on the hybrid vehicles and what commitments have been made, but I think it's broader than that and I think hopefully it will be deeper," Lagarde said.

China and the EU are each other's second largest trading partners, with their combined economic output accounting for more than one third of the global total and bilateral trade volume making up nearly one quarter of the world's total. In the first half of 2026, despite the headwinds of protectionism, China-EU trade in goods grew 14.2 percent year on year to 447.88 billion U.S. dollars.

Lagarde highlighted the mutual trading interest between China and the EU, noting the EU's attractive market of 360 million consumers and the deep two-way business ties that make them significant partners in goods and services.

"When China looks at its capacity to export and to expand, it looks around the world. At the moment, the European Union is a very interesting market. If I look at the euro area only, it's 360 million people with a strong middle class, with good purchasing power and with a degree of movement of goods and freedom of trade, which we don't see in many other advanced economies at the moment. So it is bound to be of interest to China. Equally, there have been many companies from Europe, which have set up shops, open subsidiaries, manufacturing centers in China. So there is a joint interest between the two and we are each other's trading partners both in goods and services at a very high level. So we do business together," she said.

ECB president underscores importance of keeping AI development under control

European Central Bank (ECB) President Christine Lagarde stressed the importance of human control over the direction of artificial intelligence (AI) development in an interview with China Media Group in Bangkok, Thailand, earlier this month.

Lagarde has recently warned that Europe faces an extraordinary crisis, as it has fallen far behind the United States and China in AI models, computing power, and investment.

However, in the interview that aired on Friday, she placed greater emphasis on the risks AI poses to humanity as a whole rather than on the regional concern.

"Because I think that there is one particular element, which I strongly believe in. What? The developments that we are seeing as a result of artificial intelligence are so transformational, and gearing in such an independent direction with potential recursive development to artificial intelligence that I think that all of us -- meaning the United States, China, Europe, corporate as well as policymakers -- should be preoccupied by this development. And I see it as a priority that we all understand where this is going and what kind of control human beings like you and me continue to have on this development. I'm more concerned about that than about closing the gap," she said.

Lagarde expressed confidence in the outlook for Europe's AI development and urged efforts to better leverage the region's talent and financial resources.

"So on closing the gap, it's pretty obvious from all accounts -- and I'm not the ultimate expert on artificial intelligence -- but those who know are saying that the United States is ahead of the game, that China is shortly behind. [Compared with] those developments in the U.S., [Chinese developments are] operating on a different model -- less proprietary and more open source. And Europe is -- for some of the member states -- a distant third. So can we become less of a distant third and be a third but have some control and some operational innovation? I think that should be the case, because we should also be able to develop. We have bright minds, great schooling, money, but we don't put them together well," she said.

Lagarde also called for cooperation among different parts of the world, instead of the pursuit of sole dominance.

"I also think that artificial intelligence is a long chain of different segments. So you are hand in hand with others. You don't control the entire ecosystem," she said.