MOSCOW, October 16 (RIA Novosti) - The People's Republic of China and the European Union (EU) have agreed to jointly fight terrorism and extremism, the EU said in a statement Thursday.
"They reviewed the situation in the Middle East, northern Africa and the Sahel [region of Africa] and agreed to increase cooperation to counter the common threat of extremism and terrorism in these regions," said the EU statement issued after a meeting between the Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang, the European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and the European Council President Herman Van Rompuy.
The EU-China meeting was held Wednesday evening on the sidelines of the October 16-17 Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) in Milan.
Earlier in September, the United States asked China to join the anti-terrorism coalition, of which a number of European countries are members. The coalition was set up by US President Barack Obama in September to fight the jihadist group, known as the Islamic State (IS), rampaging across Syria and Iraq. Beijing did not explicitly agree to become part of the coalition, but did express interest in the proposal.
Several media have also reported that Chinese citizens from the Xinjiang region could possibly be fighting alongside the IS extremists in Iraq and Syria.
