China National Nuclear Corporation, China Atomic Energy Authority, China Huaneng Group and China Datang Corporation have signed agreements to boost ties in nuclear energy and electricity cooperation. The industrial cooperation agreement on nuclear waste recycling is estimated to be worth $22 billion. China National Nuclear Corp will take a stake in Areva and just by the mere announcement of this deal France's Areva shares jumped as much as 5.2 percent and were trading at 6.827 Euros at 12:36 p.m. in Paris.

JD.com China's leading online-shopping platform earlier this year in June signed a deal with Australian Mall, Australia Post and Treasury Wine Estates, now to further its international reach, it has also signed an agreement on intelligent logistics with France.

China's relationship with the EU especially with the big guns in Europe has changed dramatically in the past two decades, China and the EU had miniscule trade in the 1990s, while it stood at $514 billion in 2014. If we account for the entire EU, in that case EU becomes China's largest trading partner. This shift in the trend has a lot to do with the overarching trend of economic commitments on China's part. The major driver for this boost is China's grand strategic vision of the "One Belt One Road" initiative which is economically tantalizing for Europe and France also sees this opportunity as well that is why it is seeking to enhance its role in the plans with in this initiative which aim to link China and East Asia to Europe. This is why many important leaders of the E.U are finding dealing with China to be most beneficial. Recent examples of this can be found in President Xi's super visit to the UK, German Chancellor Merkel's recent visit to China and now just recently the French President Francois Hollande concluded an important state visit to China from November 2-3. Russian political economist Sergei Kharitonov described President Xi's state visit to the UK as "the wind from China' that 'hoists the UK's sail," where as major economic cooperation pacts and confidence building measures between other E.U power houses like the ones following France's President Francois Hollande's visit is proving that the same wind is hot enough to provide lift to other economies in Europe.

The Author: Shafei Moiz Hali has a master's degree from George Mason University, Virginia, USA in the field of International Commerce and Public Policy. Mr. Hali has been working as an Assistant Professor at the National Defence University (NDU), Islamabad, Pakistan with the department of Government and Public Policy Since 2009. Currently he is pursuing his PhD from the College of Public Administration at the Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST), China.

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