Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker have pledged to strengthen the EU-China strategic partnership in their special messages delivered to the 4th Europe-China Forum held in Brussels on Tuesday.

Ahead of the 40th anniversary of EU-China diplomatic relations next year, Li sent a special message to the forum titled "EU-China: Shaping a shared future."

"As an old Chinese saying goes, 'at the age of forty, one will no longer suffer from perplexities,'" said Li in the special message. "Weathering ups and downs in the past four decades, an already mature China-EU relationship has now enjoyed steady growth."

The one-day forum was organized by the China Mission to EU, Friends of Europe with China Daily, China Institute of Reform and Development, amd Huawei.

Li called for increasing mutual efforts to accelerate investment agreement talks and urged the EU to kick off joint feasibility studies for the free trade agreements at an early date.

"Negotiations on an EU-China investment agreement started earlier this year and are expected to further improve the business environment on both sides," said Juncker,

In addition to their economic links, the EU and China will be good partners with mutual respect and trust in the pursuit of win-win cooperations and champions for open innovation and inclusive growth, said Li.