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Chinese Premier Li Keqiang spoke highly of China-Germany relations, saying that China is ready to build good cooperation with EU leaders and is willing to push forward the China-EU Comprehensive Investment Agreement.
Premier Li made the remarks during talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel who is paying an official visit to China from Friday to Saturday. A welcome ceremony for Merkel was held earlier on Friday at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.
During the meeting, Li called on joint efforts in safeguarding multilateralism and free trade, stressing that China will continue to expand opening-up and adopt favorable policies to attract foreign investment.
Li vowed to strengthen intellectual property protection, hoping that the German side will accept more Chinese companies and loosen export rules for civil technologies.
The two sides agreed to establish an environment for equal and fair trade and are going to expand cooperation on automatic driving, digitalization, and vocational training.
Merkel, for her part, congratulated China on the remarkable progress in national development and applauded the great contribution China made in tackling the international financial crisis in 2008.
She recognized China's right to develop, hailing the close China-Germany cooperation and hoped to nail the China-EU Comprehensive Investment Agreement as soon as possible.
Following the talks, the two leaders attended the signing ceremony of a series of bilateral cooperation documents.
Economic policy, international issues, as well as bilateral relations, highlight Merkel's current visit, her 12th official trip to China. The previous ones were on May 2006, August 2007, October 2008, July 2010, February 2012, August 2012, July 2014, October 2015, June 2016, September 2016, and May 2018.
Before Merkel's visit, the two leaders on Wednesday evening held a phone conversation, exchanging views on issues of common concern.
China remains Germany's largest trading partner for the third consecutive year with a total trade volume of 199.3 billion euros (225.7 billion U.S. dollars) in 2018.