By Philip Blenkinsop
BRUSSELS (Reuters) -European Union leaders committed on Friday to reducing the bloc's dependence on China and debated how to strike a balance between "de-risking" and cooperating in areas such as climate change.
Latvian Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins said finding the right stance was "the million euro question", adding the de-risking strategy followed the EU's painful lesson from reliance on Russian gas, which Moscow cut after its invasion of Ukraine.
"What it basically says is (to) assess are we overly dependent in some way on China in trade and how to reduce so that if something changes drastically in the world we're not left high and dry," he said before Friday's EU summit session.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said de-risking was mainly a matter for companies, which would take a few years to diversify.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte highlighted EU reliance on China during the COVID pandemic for protective equipment such as masks and now for medicines and pharmaceutical raw materials. De-risking, he said, would be a "step-by-step" process.
The 27-nation European Union has since 2019 considered China a partner, competitor and system rival. Its caution has increased over China's more aggressive "wolf warrior" diplomacy and Beijing's closer ties to Moscow.
"We see China more and more as a systemic rival," Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas said.
EU leaders sought on Friday to present a united front, but there are differences between countries such as France and Germany, with sizeable business interests in China, and Lithuania, on which Chinese has imposed sanctions.
Conclusions for the summit say the European Union will reduce critical dependencies and de-risk and diversify where necessary.
They call on China to press Russia to stop the war in Ukraine and express concern about growing tensions in the Taiwan Strait, while stressing a shared interest in stable relations.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in March that a hardening of China's position required Europe to "de-risk" both economically and diplomatically.
The Commission is also urging EU members to agree to stronger controls on exports and outflows of technologies to military use by "countries of concern", with China clearly in mind.
(Reporting by Philip Blenkinsop; additional reporting by Sabine Siebold; Editing by Daniel Wallis, Alison Williams and Andrew Heavens)
