Romania, along with other Central and Eastern European countries, sent only ministers instead of their head of state or Government, to a long-delayed meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on February 10.

Only a day before the event, Chinese diplomats were piling pressure on these capitals to send "higher-level representation," a diplomat from one of these six countries told Politico.eu.

Economy minister Claudiu Nasui represented Romania in this videoconference. The "17+1" platform was created by Beijing in 2012 to build ties with 17 Central and Eastern European countries. But it looked like the 11+1 on February 19, when half of the 12 EU national leaders invited to the club failed to show up and meet, Chinese President Xi Jinping in a videoconference, Politico.eu reported.

"It's a stinging diplomatic setback for Xi, who had a first class 'divide and rule' card to play by offering to double China's food imports from Eastern Europe over the next five years," Politico.eu commented.

The 17+1 format has traditionally been a forum for Beijing to press its influence in Eastern Europe by pledging investments associated with the Belt and Road Initiative, a giant infrastructure and transport project linking China to EU markets. But Xi broached some new territory on Tuesday.

In addition to his proposal to buy more food from the region, the Chinese president also vowed to improve customs procedures and raised the prospect of more Eastern Europeans (other than Serbians and Hungarians) receiving China's coronavirus vaccines.

(Photo: Pixabay)

andrei@romania-insider.com