Slovenian Ambassador to China: continue to be optimistic about the "the Belt and Road" and hope that Sri Lanka and China will work together at a new historical starting point towards the future of China | EU | Slovenia
China Daily, June 16, "my biggest feeling in the past three years is that China's development is too fast, which has become the consensus of foreigners living and working in China." The protagonist of this issue of "Those Things in China", Slovenian Ambassador to China Su Lan said in an interview with this website. What is the history of friendly exchanges between the two countries? As a member of the European Union, what role does Slovenia play in the development of China-EU relations? You can find the answer in this episode.
Slovenia is the only country in the world named after "love" because its name contains the letter "love". Therefore, Ambassador Sulan told us that Slovenia's promotional slogan is "Feel Slovenia, feel pure love".
According to Ambassador Sulan, Slovenia is a moderately developed small country in the Central and Eastern European region. Although its land area is not large, it has a rich variety of climate types. The north relies on the Alps, so Slovenia is one of the countries with strong winter sports strength. At the Beijing Winter Olympics, ski jumper Bogatai was the first gold medalist of the National Ski Jumping Center's "Snow Ruyi". The southern part is adjacent to the Adriatic Sea, which is part of the Mediterranean Sea and has a mild and humid climate. Meanwhile, Slovenia ranks second in forest coverage in Europe, making it unique.
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In 1992, China officially established diplomatic relations with Slovenia, but the friendly exchanges between the two countries can be traced back even earlier. According to historical records, during the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, the supervisor of the Qintian Observatory, who was responsible for producing the most complete astronomical instruments at that time, came from Slovenia and was named Liu Songling. He lived in China for nearly 30 years. And now this precise astronomical instrument is still displayed at the Beijing Ancient Observatory.
Slovenia is China's largest trading partner in the Western Balkans, and China is Slovenia's largest trading partner in Asia. In November 2017, the two countries signed a memorandum of understanding on jointly building the "the Belt and Road". Ambassador Su Lan believes that the "the Belt and Road" initiative is very important because it is a platform to connect each other. In addition to the economic and trade field, exchanges in various fields between China and Slovenia are also constantly advancing. For example, the design of all buildings on the "Snow Ruyi" concrete foundation for the Beijing Winter Olympics is completed by Slovenian engineers.
As a member state of the European Union, Slovenia has always advocated for the development of positive Sino European relations. Ambassador Sulan looks forward to this year's China EU Leaders Meeting and believes that face-to-face talks between leaders are the key to successful and substantive cooperation between the two sides.
![Slovenian Ambassador to China: continue to be optimistic about the "the Belt and Road" and hope that Sri Lanka and China will work together at a new historical starting point towards the future of China | EU | Slovenia](https://a5qu.com/upload/images/b369cbb611920b4f5fbbecb4cd661ac6.jpg)
EU countries will take turns serving as the rotating presidency of the EU for a period of six months. In 2021, Slovenia served as the rotating presidency of the European Council and played an important role in promoting the development of China Europe relations.
The ancients said, "Those who share the same aspirations do not consider mountains and seas as distant." This sentence is very appropriate to describe the friendship between China and Sri Lanka. Ambassador Sulan stated that Slovenia highly values its friendly relationship with China and hopes that bilateral relations and cooperation can achieve greater development in the next thirty years.
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![Slovenian Ambassador to China: continue to be optimistic about the "the Belt and Road" and hope that Sri Lanka and China will work together at a new historical starting point towards the future of China | EU | Slovenia](https://a5qu.com/upload/images/1499714170c3b5cf3faf0d956da95cf0.jpg)