German Chancellor Visits China

Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel visited China at the end of October. At a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, both sides spoke positively of China-Germany relations and agreed to further intensify bilateral practical cooperation in various fields and maintain the healthy, stable, and constant development of the China-Germany all-round strategic partnership.

President Xi noted that both sides should consolidate political mutual trust, respect each other’s development path, understand and take care of each other’s core interests and major concerns, and maintain the momentum of close exchanges at all levels. Chancellor Merkel said that recent years had witnessed the high-quality development of China-Germany relations. Both sides enjoy close exchanges at all levels and are constantly deepening exchanges and cooperation in such areas as politics, economy, and people-to-people and cultural engagement. Germany is ready to deepen practical cooperation with China in economy, trade, industry, and finance.

In his meeting with the Chancellor, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang hoped that as a major member of the EU, Germany will play an active role in propelling negotiations on China-EU investment agreement, a China-EU free trade area, personnel exchanges, establishment of a China-EU joint investment fund, and construction of connectivity platform. According to the Chancellor, Germany is willing to expand cooperation, based on the sound foundation of existing bilateral relations, for even greater development.