Chinese FM calls for coordination, cooperation with Germany

Berlin, Sep 2 (IANS) Visiting Chinese State Councillor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi has said that as two major independent forces in the world, China and Germany should strengthen strategic consultation, deepen strategic coordination and expand strategic cooperation, in a bid to take on three tasks.

Yi made the remarks during talks with German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas on Tuesday, Xinhua news agency reported.

The Chinese FM said the world is facing three major choices — multilateralism or unilateralism, openness or closeness, cooperation or confrontation.

The first task, Yi said, is to strengthen global anti-epidemic cooperation and revive the world economy. At the time when the prevention and control of Covid-19 have become a regular practice, China is willing to work with Germany to expand the “express channel” for personnel exchanges, and strengthen cooperation in vaccine and medicine development, in a bid to take care of the health of the two peoples and make contributions to global public health security.

Yi said that China and Germany should advocate for global solidarity, support the World Health Organization and oppose wrong acts and words stigmatizing global anti-epidemic cooperation.

The two sides should also implement the consensus reached at the G20 summit to help Africa and other less-developed regions, in a bid to give more momentum to the world economy, Yi added.

The second task is to advance the China-European Union (EU) relations to a higher level, the Chinese FM said, adding that developing strategic partnerships with Germany and Europe is China’s strategic choice rather than an expedient measure, without any influence from the third party.

As partners rather than rivals, China and the EU should accommodate and learn from each other to help stabilize the turbulent world, Yi said.

He hoped that Germany will play a constructive role in promoting China-EU mutual trust and cooperation during the current German rotating presidency of the EU Council.

For his part, Maas said that Germany highly values Germany-China relations and EU-China relations, and further developing relations with China is a key target of Germany as the current EU Council rotating president, adding that Germany will work with China to promote the success of the important EU-China political agenda in the next phase.

“Decoupling” is not in the interest of any party, said Maas, adding that China is a major country with great influence, so that it is impossible to find lasting solutions without China’s participation in dealing with major international issues such as tackling climate change.

–IANS

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