Chinese Premier Li Qiang's official visit to Germany comes at a time when the global situation is turbulent and the global economic recovery is sluggish.

As his first overseas visit since becoming Chinese premier in March this year, Li chose Germany as the first stop, which shows the importance China attaches to its relations with Germany.

During separate talks with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Li highlighted the importance of stable China-Germany relations and cooperation at higher standards and higher quality.

"The visit and the face-to-face meetings are necessary and important for Germany to better understand the nature of cooperation between the two countries and how they achieve mutual benefits, and help the European country to form a more comprehensive understanding of China," Cui Hongjian, director of the Department of European Studies at the China Institute of International Studies, told CGTN.

'The biggest risk is non-cooperation'

As the highlight of this visit, the seventh China-Germany inter-governmental consultation is the first offline consultation since the pandemic and the first time that the new governments of the two countries have fully connected.

Both sides attached great importance to the consultation and heard reports on the progress of bilateral cooperation in relevant fields from the heads of 22 departments, including foreign affairs, economy and trade, industry, finance, justice, transport, education, science and technology, health, environmental protection and development.

Stressing the importance of cooperation, Li noted that the biggest risk is non-cooperation and the biggest hidden security risk is non-development during talks with Steinmeier, adding that China always supports openness and cooperation.

The two countries have been each other's main trading partners. China has been Germany's largest trading partner for the seventh year in a row. Meanwhile, Germany has been China's largest trading partner in Europe.

Goods worth $227.6 billion were traded between the two countries in 2022, according to China's General Administration of Customs. In the first five months of this year, bilateral trade volume between the two countries reached $87.8 billion.

Meng Hong, a professor at Renmin University of China, told China Media Group (CMG) that Sino-German economic and trade cooperation has injected impetus into the economic and social development of the two countries.

"Germany, benefiting from the opportunities brought about by China's economy, has better relieved the European debt crisis and played a leading role in the integration of Europe," she said.

Li expressed China's willingness to work with Germany to uphold peace, development and cooperation, play a constructive role in contributing to global stability and prosperity, and provide more certainty to a volatile world.

When attending the 11th China-Germany Economic and Technical Cooperation Forum, he noted the necessity to take economic and technological cooperation as an important cornerstone of international cooperation, grasp the trend of economic globalization, firmly support free trade, and promote the common prosperity and development of mankind.

'De-risking' is not 'de-sinicization'

When meeting with Li, Scholz said the German side welcomes China's development and prosperity, noting that Germany rejects all forms of decoupling and that "de-risking" is not "de-sinicization."

Germany, Scholz said, has no intention to decouple from China and is ready to strengthen bilateral and multilateral cooperation with China to promote world development and prosperity.

The key to the success of China-Germany cooperation lies in the spirit of mutual respect, seeking common ground while shelving differences, mutual benefit, and win-win, pragmatic and innovative cooperation, Li noted at the forum.

"The most important task for Germany and China at present is to uphold the principle of seeking common ground while reserving differences to communicate openly and honestly to further enhance mutual trust," said Otto Hauser, chairman of the Federal Association of German-Chinese Alliance.

Michael Schumann, chairman of the board of the German Federal Association for Business Development and Foreign Trade, told CMG that politicizing and weaponizing economic and trade relations, advocating the so-called "economic decoupling" or "de-risking" targeting other countries will bring harm to the economies of the countries concerned.

"Germany and China can learn from each other in many fields," he said, adding that such win-win cooperation can also bring multi-win results to the whole world.

Promote upgrading of cooperation

Li proposed tackling climate change as one of the guiding visions for China-Germany cooperation in the future during talks with Scholz, adding that the two countries should promote cooperation in green technology and industry, and explore the establishment of a rational and orderly division of labor in the green energy industry chain.

During the consultation, the two sides agreed to set up a dialogue and cooperation mechanism on climate change and green transition, hold the third China-Germany High Level Financial Dialogue as well as new editions of the Sino-German Environmental Forum and health dialogue, and continue to deepen cooperation in the fields of economy and trade, investment, automobile manufacturing, high-tech, new energy, digital economy and humanities.

Noting that the new energy vehicle industry is a new area of bilateral cooperation, President of the Association of German Chambers of Industry and Commerce Peter Adrian said the German and Chinese auto industries can learn from each other and stimulate cooperation potential in the process of jointly moving towards intelligence and electrification.

Optimistic about the future cooperation between China and Germany in the field of high-tech, Johannes Mauser, president of the Association of Germany-China Industrial Design, said China is developing rapidly in the field of artificial intelligence.

"In the future, Germany and China have broad prospects for cooperation in the fields of robotics, digital intelligence technology, data exchange and 3D printing, which can inject new vitality into bilateral economic and trade relations," he told CMG.

Li said that it is believed that with the joint efforts of the countries' entrepreneurs, China-Germany cooperation will continue to achieve new results, while attending a round table of more than 30 representatives of Chinese and German entrepreneurs.