Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday held a phone conversation with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier at the latter's invitation.

Xi pointed out that this year marks the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Germany, which is a year of great significance in China-Germany relations. Under the joint efforts of several generations of German and Chinese leaders, China-Germany relations have moved forward and the two countries have become all-round strategic partners, he said. 

China is willing to work together with Germany to push China-Germany relations to a new level and open up 50 years of successful bilateral relations in the future, Xi said. 

Xi puts forward three suggestions on the development of China-Germany relations in the next phase. 

First, both sides should adhere to the right basic perception. China and Germany have always been partners of dialogue, development and cooperation, as well as partners for handling global challenges. Both sides should continue to build and expand consensus through dialogue, manage differences in a constructive manner, and continue to enrich the partnership. 

Second, China-Germany cooperation is pragmatic and open, which is the most important feature of the relationship, that should be maintained. The trade volume between China and Germany has increased 870 times in the past 50 years. Both sides should cherish the hard-earned cooperation achievements, strengthen the complementary advantages of market, capital and technology, expand cooperation in traditional fields such as automobiles, machinery and chemicals, and explore the potential of cooperation in service trade, intelligent manufacturing and digitalization. 

China treats German enterprises investing in China equally and hopes that Germany will provide a fair, transparent and non-discriminatory business environment for Chinese enterprises investing in Germany, Xi said. 

Third, leading the healthy and stable development of China-European Union (EU) relations is a direction that China and Germany should work together. China supports the strategic autonomy of the EU and hopes that the EU side will adhere to the basic positioning of China and EU as strategic partners, adhere to mutual respect, mutual tolerance, pragmatic cooperation, mutual benefit and win-win cooperation, and adhere to the principle that China-EU relations should not target, depend on or be subject to any third party.

Xi said he hopes that Germany will continue to play an active role, together with China, to promote the stability of China-Europe relations. 

Xi stressed that China is willing to cooperate more extensively and deeply with Germany in addressing global challenges such as sluggish economic recovery, climate change, food crisis and energy crisis in the post-COVID period. 

For his part, Steinmeier said that over the past 50 years, Germany-China relations have become increasingly close, with fruitful outcomes in cooperation, bringing benefits to both peoples. Germany firmly adheres to the one-China policy and is ready to work with China to promote the further development of Germany-China relations in a spirit of mutual respect, openness and tolerance, he said. 

Germany is ready to strengthen communication with China, hold a new round of governmental consultations in due course, deepen pragmatic cooperation in various fields, maintain close consultation and coordination on regional hotspot issues, and better address common challenges such as biodiversity conservation, the energy crisis, the food crisis, maintaining the security and stability of the industrial supply chain, and promoting the resumption of growth in the world economy, he said. 

Germany appreciates China's important contribution to the success of the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity and is also willing to actively promote the development of Europe-China relations, he added. 

The two sides also exchanged views on the Ukraine crisis. Xi said that China sticks to promoting talks for peace, believing that prolonging and complicating the crisis is not in the interests of all sides. China supports the European side to show strategic autonomy, lead the construction of a balanced, effective and sustainable European security architecture, and achieve lasting peace and long-term stability on the European continent, he added.