Real partnership with EU has just started unfolding

Two years ago, Xi Jinping paid his first visit to Europe as China's president. Apart from visiting four Western European countries and the European Union headquarters in Brussels, Xi also attended the Nuclear Security Summit in The Hague in the Netherlands.

And thanks to his state visit to the United Kingdom in October 2015, Beijing and London are set to herald a "golden decade" of strategic partnership. Xi also joined global leaders at the UN climate conference in Paris in December to help strike a deal to curb greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.

Now, Xi is paying a visit to the Czech Republic, his first to a Central or Eastern European country, from Monday to Wednesday before flying to Washington to attend the fourth Nuclear Security Summit.