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Germany's Merkel: Enhancing dialogue in interests of both nations and world China's development is an opportunity for the European Union,
President Xi Jinping said on Wednesday, urging the EU to make correct
judgments independently and truly achieve strategic autonomy. Speaking in a phone conversation with German Chancellor Angela
Merkel, Xi said China hopes that Germany and the EU will make joint
efforts with China to protect and promote the healthy and stable
development of their cooperation so as to bring more certainty and
stability to a volatile world. It was the first time this year that Xi had a phone conversation with
Merkel. Last year, the two leaders had four phone conversations to
exchange views on bilateral ties and China-EU cooperation. Noting that their communication last year played an important role
for the development of China-Germany and China-EU relations, Xi said
that enhancing China-Germany and China-EU cooperation would achieve
major results. With the China-EU relationship facing new opportunities as well as
challenges, Xi said the key is to keep to the general direction of
China-EU relations from a strategic perspective, respect each other and
remove distractions. Xi said that China stands ready to work with the EU to ensure the
success of a series of significant political agendas for the next stage
through consultation, deepen and expand practical cooperation across the
board and strengthen communication on climate change and other global
governance issues to jointly practice multilateralism. He said practical cooperation between China and Germany has achieved
progress despite the COVID-19 pandemic and other factors, and China has
been Germany's largest trading partner for five consecutive years. This
reflected the resilience and potential of China-Germany cooperation, he
added. Xi called on the two countries to promote bilateral cooperation under
the principle of mutual respect and win-win results to inject
confidence and impetus for China-EU cooperation and world economic
recovery. As China is actively fostering the dual-circulation development
paradigm, Xi said that while the country seeks development depending on
its own strength, it also adheres to opening to the outside world and
actively participates in international division of labor and
cooperation. China is willing to share opportunities created by the new round of
opening-up with companies from Germany and elsewhere, Xi said, adding
that China hopes Germany will stay open and offer more convenience for
expanding mutually beneficial cooperation between their companies. He also called on the two nations to promote exchanges in such areas
as science and technology, education, culture and sports by using
opportunities presented by the 50th anniversary of China-Germany
diplomatic ties and the Beijing Winter Olympics next year. Xi expressed China's opposition to efforts to politicize vaccines and
so-called vaccine nationalism. He said China stands ready to work with
Germany and the whole international community to facilitate fair and
reasonable vaccine distribution and help a majority of developing
countries obtain access to vaccines. Merkel said the EU has adhered to an autonomous foreign policy. She
said Germany-China and EU-China cooperation are increasingly necessary
today to deal with challenges faced by the world. Enhancing dialogue and cooperation between the EU and China not only
conforms to the interests of both nations, but will also benefit the
world, she said, adding that Germany is willing to play an active role. She also said Germany will work with China to prepare for the new
round of China-Germany inter-government consultations and resume
personnel exchanges as soon as possible.
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