During the “16+1” summit in Riga of Latvia, Premier Li Keqiang met with leaders of 16 Central and Eastern European nations and Belarus, the observer, in just two days.

On Nov 4, Premier Li met with the prime minister, president and parliament speaker of Latvia. In the afternoon, he met with Macedonian, Slovenian, and Albanian prime ministers.

The schedule was tighter on Nov 5. In the morning alone, he met with the leaders of Croatia, Estonia, Bulgaria, Hungary, Serbia, Poland, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Belarus and Montenegro. Nine meetings in total.

In the afternoon, the Premier held talks with Lithuanian and Slovak prime ministers outside the official summit.

After the welcome dinner, he met with another two leaders — Romanian and Czech prime ministers. It was 9:40 pm by the time the last meeting ended.

The busy schedule left everyone in the meeting room in a rush — all the national flags, water bottles, cups and table signs in the room had to be changed for each meeting, and interpretations had to be conducted simultaneously.

The busiest time, of course, is the Premier’s discussion with ministers outside the meetings.

This meeting was the fifth “16+1” summit. The next one will be hosted by Hungary in 2017.