The President of the European Council, Donald Tusk, has called for the US, China, Russia and the EU to work together on global trade to avoid “conflict and chaos.”

Speaking at the China-EU summit in Beijing today, Tusk said the “architecture of the world is changing before our very eyes and it is our common responsibility to make it a change for the better,” Asia Times reports.

Tusk added it was important “not to start trade wars, which turned into hot conflicts so often in our history, but to bravely and responsibly reform the rules-based international order.”

His comments came a day after US President Donald Trump described the EU as “a foe” because of “what they do to us on trade” – marking another shift in tensions between the  two trading partners.

However, despite sharing President Trump's wrath, the EU and China stopped short of forging an alliance to confront US tariffs, with the South China Morning Post reporting that the they are ‘not seeking a coalition to counter Washington.’

The fact that both sides issued a joint communique at the summit – the first in three years – is not without significance, though, and reflects a new willingness to cooperate amid emerging challenges, Bloomberg suggests.