Priority areas set for more cooperation

Two-way opening-up and mutual benefit lauded in Sino-German ties

Premier Li Keqiang said on Friday that China stands ready to strengthen cooperation with Germany in priority areas such as trade, investment, manufacturing and vaccines, as he met with visiting German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Beijing.

Li, who held a grand welcoming ceremony for Scholz at the Great Hall of the People, said that China and Germany are both major economies and the two countries have constantly advanced their pragmatic cooperation to new levels as bilateral exchanges keep growing.

Noting that two-way opening-up and mutual benefit are distinct characteristics of China-Germany pragmatic cooperation, he said trade and economic cooperation represent the cornerstone of bilateral relations.

The premier said that China is willing to work with Germany to actively promote the establishment of cooperative mechanisms for addressing climate change and push for more direct flights between the two countries to be opened in an orderly manner so as to facilitate people-to-people exchanges.

He reiterated China's commitment to the path of peaceful development, adherence to the fundamental national policy of reform and opening-up, and the country's firm pursuit of an opening-up strategy with mutual benefit and win-win results.

China's door of opening-up will only be wider, Li added.

Scholz, for his part, praised the rich fruits achieved in bilateral cooperation in such fields as politics, trade and economy over the past 50 years since China and Germany established diplomatic ties.

He said his country does not propose to have any decoupling and it hopes to secure world peace and development, and global economic growth with equal market access.

Germany stands ready to work with China to overcome the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and deepen cooperation on the basis of equality and mutual benefit, he said.

When Li and Scholz jointly met the media after their bilateral talks, Li said China and Germany should enhance strategic mutual trust, adhere to two-way opening-up, deepen win-win cooperation and send out the positive signal of upholding multilateralism and free trade.

Both China and Germany are each other's important trade and investment partners and China has been the largest trading partner of Germany for six consecutive years.

Two-way trade between the two countries in the first nine months of this year reached $173.6 billion, keeping a momentum of growth, according to the Ministry of Commerce.

More than 5,000 German enterprises are investing and growing in China, and more than 2,000 Chinese companies are operating in Germany.

Also on Friday, China Aviation Supplies Holding said in a statement that it has officially signed orders to buy 140 planes worth about $17 billion from European aircraft maker Airbus.

The purchase agreement includes 132 A320 series aircraft and eight A350 planes, according to the statement.