collaboration with the Atalanta mission. China joined the European Union escorting World Food Programme shipments to Somalia in a spirit of burden sharing. We are placing particular importance on the security aspects of the European Union-China relationship. We will cooperate in this field from crisis management to counter-piracy, from non-proliferation to counterterrorism. China in the last three decades has achieved significant social progress, with hundreds of millions of people moving out of poverty. These improvements still need to be translated into better promotion and defence of human rights. We remain concerned by the reports on the human rights situation in China. The rules on detention of suspects could certainly improve if China aligned itself with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights that it has signed but not ratified yet. During the course of 2012, the European Union has paid particular attention to the Tibetan human rights situation as the HRVP stated in this House last June and in a statement on Tibetan self-immolations last December. Our line is well known and has not changed: we reiterate our call to the concerned parties to resume a meaningful dialogue. The European Union intends to continue closely monitoring the overall human rights situation in China and we will not hesitate to speak our mind publicly. President, Honourable Members,