68. Underlines the importance of China’s efforts to achieve peace, security and stability in the Korean peninsula; 69. Welcomes China’s contributions to United Nations and African Union peacekeeping; remarks that the EU aims to reinforce its engagement with China on foreign policy and security issues by encouraging China to mobilise its diplomatic and other resources to support international security, and to contribute to peace and security in the EU’s neighbourhood based on international law; notes that the cooperation with China in the field of export control, disarmament, non-proliferation issues and the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula is essential to ensure stability in the East Asia region; 70. Welcomes China’s aim to develop into a sustainable economy; stresses that the EU can support China’s economic reform programme with its know-how; underlines that China is a key partner for the EU with regard to tackling climate change and global environmental challenges; aims to work together with China to speed up the implementation of the Paris Climate Agreement; 71. Welcomes the reforms undertaken by China since the launch of its ‘ecological civilisation’ approach; considers the special status granted to environmental NGOs in courts, audits of the environmental impact of the work of officials, and high investment in electro-mobility and clean energy as reforms in the right direction; 72. Welcomes China’s 2016 action plan to tackle antimicrobial resistance; stresses the importance of cooperation between China, which accounts for half the world’s annual antimicrobial drug consumption, and the EU in tackling this global threat; insists that animal welfare provisions should be included in bilateral EU-China trade agreements; 73. Takes note of China’s decision to ban imports of solid waste, which highlights the importance of the process of designing, producing, repairing, reusing and recycling products, with a particular emphasis on the production and use of plastic; recalls China’s recent attempt to ban exports of rare earth elements, and asks the Commission to take into consideration the interdependence of the global economies when prioritising EU policies; 74. Believes that there would be scope, an interest in and a need for the EU and ASEAN to work together to develop a joint circular economy strategy; believes China could play a key role in taking this initiative forward in ASEAN; 75. Argues that China and the European Union will benefit from promoting sustainability in their economies and from developing a multi-sector sustainable and circular bioeconomy; 76. Welcomes the agreement to increase cooperation on research and innovation in flagship initiatives such as those on food, agriculture and biotechnologies, environment and sustainable urbanisation, surface transport, safer and greener aviation and biotechnologies for environment and human health that were agreed upon during the 3rd EU-China Innovation Cooperation Dialogue in June 2017 and the corresponding Roadmap for EUChina science and technology (S&T) cooperation from October 2017; calls on the EU and China to continue these efforts and to put the results of the research and development projects into practice; 77. Points out that the EU and China are heavily dependent on fossil fuels and together account for around a third of total global consumption, which places China at the top of