On October 25, 2021, President Xi Jinping exchanged congratulatory messages with Belgium's King Philippe to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between China and Belgium.

Xi Jinping pointed out that since China and Belgium established diplomatic ties, bilateral relations have been developing constantly on the basis of mutual respect and mutual benefit. In 2014, King Philippe and I upgraded the China-Belgium relationship to an all-around friendly cooperative partnership, and fruitful results have been yielded in bilateral exchanges and cooperation across the board. After the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the two peoples helped each other and continued to write a new chapter of China-Belgium friendship. I attach great importance to the development of China-Belgium relations and stand ready to work with King Philippe to take the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties as an opportunity to push for new achievements in China-Belgium relations and make new contributions to the development of China-EU relations.

Philippe said that since the establishment of diplomatic ties between Belgium and China 50 years ago, bilateral friendly relations have made great progress in many areas, with fruitful results in economic and trade cooperation and increasingly close exchanges at local levels. I have visited China several times and witnessed the rapid progress of China and the development of Belgium-China relations. Looking into the future, I wish for further strengthening Belgium-China friendly relations on the current solid basis.

Also on October 25, 2021, Premier Li Keqiang exchanged congratulatory messages with Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo. Li Keqiang said, China is willing to work with Belgium to take the opportunity of celebrating the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties to deepen mutually beneficial cooperation, expand friendly exchanges and push for the sustained and sound development of bilateral ties. De Croo said Belgium cherishes the bilateral relations and stands ready to strengthen dialogue with China, deepen cooperation in economy, trade, sustainable development and other areas, and jointly safeguard multilateralism.