On October 18, 2006, Assistant Foreign Minister Kong Quan met with the diplomats attending the 2nd Workshop for European Diplomats in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Kong firstly extended warm welcome to his European counterparts on behalf of the Chinese foreign ministry. Kong said that holding the workshop is a vivid embodiment of the deepening and expansion of the comprehensive strategic partnership between China and Europe, a beneficial attempt of the Chinese foreign ministry to strength contacts, increase understanding and expand cooperation with the foreign ministries of European countries and EU agencies, and an important measure taken by China to strength the cultural exchanges with Europe. China attaches great importance to developing the relations with European countries and the EU and hopes that the diplomats from both China and European countries could join hands to propel the development of China-Europe relations. He also answered the questions raised by European diplomats, including the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula, Myanmar, human rights, the Asia-Europe meeting, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, China-European relations and Europe-US relations.

The theme of the workshop is "Today's China and Its Development Strategies'. There are 34 diplomats from 30 European countries, EU Commission, EU Council, and European Parliament attending the workshop which lasts for 10 days. The participants also attended the lectures on "China's history and culture", "China's national conditions and the Concept of Scientific Development", "China's foreign policies" and "China-Europe relations", and had discussions and exchanged views with officials from the National People's Congress, State Environmental Protection Administration and State Administration for Religious Affairs as well as the scholars from China Institute of International Studies. Besides Beijing, the European diplomats will also pay visits to Zhejiang and Gansu.