It will adopt guidelines for cooperation among the countries which will identify common interests in certain areas. An economic forum will also be held today.

The sixth summit will bring together the prime ministers of Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Macedonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia and China.

The idea to launch the 16+1 partnership was given at the economic and trade forum which Central and East European countries organised in Budapest in 2011. As early as 2012, Poland's Warsaw hosted the first summit of the new initiative.

Cerar will be accompanied by Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Food Dejan Židan and Minister of Economic Relations and Technology Zdravko Počivalšek, and will meet Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Tuesday.

According to Cerar's office, Slovenia and China will sign a memorandum of understanding within the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st-century Maritime Silk Road initiative. Contracts are also expected to be signed among Slovenian and Chinese companies.

Cerar will also present the possibility for Slovenian experts to help China build its Nordic centre for the Olympic Games Beijing will host in 2022 and train Chinese experts in ski jumping.

Meanwhile, as coordinator of forest management within the partnership, Slovenia will present its activity in this area and resolutions adopted at the 12th forum of cooperation in agriculture, trade and the economy, which it hosted in August.

The forum adopted a statement which calls for strengthening cooperation, highlights the role of food safety as well as the role of local and global food chains plus the protection of farmers and standards.

On the margins of the summit, Slovenia's Food Safety, Veterinary and Plant Protection Administration and China's Administration for Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine will sign a protocol related to honeybee products to enable Slovenian exports of honey and other honeybee products to China.

Trade in goods between Slovenia and China has been on the increase over the past few years, exceeding one billion euro for the first time in 2016. Slovenia's exports amounted to 270.6 million euros last year, while imports from there stood at 763.4 million.

Apart from Budapest and Warsaw, 16+1 summits have so far been hosted by Bucharest, Belgrade, Suzhou and Riga.