BELGIUM - Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in Belgium on Sunday for the final leg of his four-nation, eleven-day tour of Europe.

Xi is optimistic that China and Belgium will enhance their relations with other member countries of the European Union.

Belgian monarch King Philippe and his spouse, Queen Mathilde, welcomed President Xi Jinping and First Lady Peng Liyuan in Brussels with a formal ceremony.

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It was in 2003 when the European Union and China established a "comprehensive strategic partnership." In the last decade, this partnership has resulted to one of the most dynamic and fast growing bilateral ties in the world.

President Xi has expressed in the past that Beijing will prioritize the EU-Sino ties as part of his diplomatic agenda in this 11-day tour of Europe.

Xi is the first Chinese leader to visit China in the last three decades and is expected to sign several agreements of cooperation in areas such as the economy, trade, education, science and technology, and telecommunication.

The volume of trade between Belgium and China grew by over 1,000 times in the last four decades with Belgium as China's sixth largest trade partner within the European Union.

The trade between China and EU expanded four times in ten years at US$ 559.1 Billion (3.47 Trillion yuan) by the end of 2013. There 5.5 million travelers between China and Europe annually.