The European Union (EU) should seek collaboration with China and Asia as a whole, which have demonstrated greater economic competitiveness than the EU, said Hungarian Foreign and Trade Minister Peter Szijjarto on Friday during an informal meeting of EU trade ministers in Valencia, according to a report by RT.

Szijjarto emphasized that the global economy has undergone a significant transformation in recent years, leading to a decline in the bloc's economic standing, which is further exacerbated by Brussels' indiscriminate use of sanction policies.

"Today we pay four times as much for gas in Europe as Americans do at home and three times as much for electricity as people pay in China," he pointed out, noting that while distancing itself from Russia has already caused problems, doing the same with China would be even more destructive for the EU economy.

He noted that China has already surpassed the EU in terms of gross domestic product: its share of global GDP jumped from 9 percent in 2010 to the current 18 percent, while the EU's share dropped from 22 to 17 percent. 

Now more than ever, the economies of the East and the West are deeply interdependent, and he stressed that the EU should embrace this trend.

Szijjarto noted that the basis of the EU's economic growth previously lay in the combination of advanced Western technologies and cheap Russian energy, but this line of cooperation has now been severed. Distancing itself from Russia has already caused problems and doing the same with China would be even more destructive for the EU economy, he added.

Unfortunately, some Western Europeans are striving to cut off economic cooperation between Europe and China, he said, before warning that if such a scenario were to happen, it would have a devastating impact on the European economy.

(Cover: File Photo of Hungarian Foreign and Trade Minister Peter Szijjarto speaking during the 66th general assembly of International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, Austria on September 26, 2022. /CFP)