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Exclusive | ‘Europe will not forget’: euro-zone rescue fund official recalls Asia’s help with financial crisis in 2010s
- ESM CFO Kalin Anev Janse says China was among the countries that showed a very strong commitment to Europe at that time
- Beijing, Brussels and Washington must work together to benefit economies and people, he says ahead of this week’s EU-China Summit
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China has been one of Europe’s “incredibly important” investors and the two economies should continue to work together on finance despite geopolitical tensions, according to the chief financial officer of the euro zone’s permanent rescue fund.
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Kalin Anev Janse, CFO of the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), an intergovernmental fund, said Europe “will not forget” the contributions made by Asia, including China, to help the continent overcome the financial crisis more than a decade ago.
Anev Janse was part of a delegation from the ESM that was in the Chinese capital last week for talks with the People’s Bank of China, the Ministry of Finance, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and private investors.
The trip came a week before the presidents of the European Council and European Commission – Charles Michel and Ursula von der Leyen – are due in Beijing for a summit with Chinese leaders to examine economic and financial ties between the two sides – among other issues.
In 2011, the first year when the agency’s predecessor the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) went to the bond markets, 37 per cent of their bonds were bought by Asian investors.
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That showed “a very strong commitment” by Asia, including China, to support Europe in the euro crisis, Anev Janse said in an interview with the South China Morning Post in Beijing on Friday.
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