German ambassador to China: Free trade, climate change on G20 agenda

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German Ambassador to China Michael Clauss said in an interview with CGTN's Wang Hui that free trade will be on the agenda of the G20 Summit, which is set to be held in Hamburg, Germany from July 7 to 8. He also mentioned that another top priority of the summit will be to stop the Paris Agreement from unraveling.

Both Germany and China agree on how important free trade is in today's world. However, since US President Donald Trump took office, some of his policies and slogans have brought signs of rising protectionism.

Clauss believes that it may not be easy to find consensus between major economies over free trade at the 2017 summit. He also said that the summit does not work based on a majority decision, so a consensus needs to be found upon which every party agrees.

After Trump's decision to withdraw the US from the Paris Agreement, German Chancellor Angela Merkel promised to uphold the deal on climate change.

Clauss said that Germany is happy to see China sticking to the Paris Agreement like many other countries. He also said that at the current stage, delegations of all countries are working together to find a common ground.

On July 3, in the joint election manifesto of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and Christian Social Union (CSU) , Merkel dropped the word "friend" when referring to the United States, according to Xinhua.

Clauss said that the US will remain as an important partner to Germany, though the two countries have many differences and more disagreements over a lot of important topics.