At an annual Bund Summit in Shanghai on Saturday, the European Commission’s executive vice president said that although the EU needs to protect itself economically, it will not cut ties with China, which is one of its biggest trade partners.

Valdis Dombrovskis, who also serves as the trade commissioner in Brussels, said the relations between the EU and China were “very unbalanced,” with Europe having a trade deficit with China of nearly €400 billion ($427 billion) in 2022, as total import-export flows were over €865 billion, an all-time high.

He said, “De-risking is not decoupling. And the EU has no intention of decoupling from China,” however he added that the bloc “also needs to protect itself in situations when its openness is abused.”

He made the comments ahead of meetings which will be held with Chinese leaders, including vice-premier He Lifeng, which are set to be held in Beijing next week.

Dombrovskis, presently on a four-day trip to China said, “Creating an open market among its members was one of the EU’s founding principles. We are also committed to free and fair global trade, and ‘fair’ is the key word here.”

He added, “This means minimising our strategic dependencies for a select number of strategic products.”

The official also pledged he would boost ties with China, manage trade issues, and confront global challenges.

Dombrovskis made the case that the bloc should minimize its reliance on “a select number of strategic products” and act is a targeted, and proportionate fashion to preserve its “open strategic autonomy.”

The EU trade chief then noted that China and the EU should work together to deal with global challenges such as food security, climate change and debt distress.