The file photo, taken on November 8, 2017, shows US President Donald Trump (L) gesturing next to China�s President Xi Jinping during a business leaders event at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. (By AFP)

The European Union (EU) has warned that rising tensions between China and the United States are not helpful at a time when there needs to be a broad multinational cooperation to deal with the coronavirus pandemic.

Nicolas Chapuis, the EU�s ambassador to China, said during a briefing on Thursday that China can help alleviate these problematic tensions and further its economic reforms to avoid destruction of global supply chains, the decoupling of major economies and rise of protectionism.

We are seeing high levels of tensions, strategic, economic, political, growing day after day. It is our opinion that these tensions are not conducive to the cooperative spirit we need today, Chapuis said.

I am convinced that the EU voice is today more than ever necessary. We are the core of multilateral solutions that need to be taken to mitigate the coronavirus crisis and prepare for economic recovery, he added.

Beijing and Washington have time and again clashed over the virus spread and its origin, further increasing tensions between the world�s two largest economies.

The new coronavirus, which causes a respiratory disease known as COVID-19, emerged in the city of Wuhan in December last year, incrementally affecting the rest of the world.

US President Donald Trump keeps referring to the novel coronavirus as the Chinese virus and Beijing has hit back by suggesting that the US military brought the virus to Wuhan and initiated the outbreak.

Trump has over the past weeks claimed that there is evidence Beijing created the new coronavirus in a medical lab in the Chinese city. This is while the US intelligence agencies say they have seen no evidence to show the virus is man-made.

Last week, Trump threatened China with new tariffs amid the coronavirus outbreak he blames Beijing for.

The US president said his ongoing trade deal negotiations with the Asian country were now of secondary importance to the virus pandemic as his administration crafted retaliatory measures over the outbreak.

China has fiercely defended its handling of the new coronavirus, repeatedly saying it has been nothing but open, transparent and responsible in informing the World Health Organization (WHO) and affected countries about the pandemic.

Scientific studies have already suggested that the virus originated through natural processes.

SOURCE: PRESS TV