President discusses key issues with Merkel

President Xi Jinping has called for further strengthening mutual trust between China and Germany to advance the countries' ties, and expressed hope that Germany could push for the European Union to uphold a proper policy toward China to ensure the healthy development of China-EU relations.

Xi made the remark in a telephone conversation with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Friday.

He highly appreciated Merkel's active efforts to advance pragmatic cooperation and friendly exchanges between China and Germany, as well as between China and the EU.

His frequent and efficient communications with Merkel over the past year have played an important role in guiding the development of China-Germany and China-EU relations, and demonstrated the high-level mutual trust between the two countries, Xi said.

He said bilateral ties have maintained sound development and the two countries' cooperation in various fields has shown strong resilience despite the COVID-19 pandemic.

Xi talked about the countries' joint efforts to push for the conclusion of negotiations on the China-EU Comprehensive Agreement on Investment on schedule, advocate multilateralism, uphold free trade and actively deal with climate change, saying that China and Germany have joined hands to contribute to safeguarding world peace and stability.

The reason that China and Germany make tremendous achievements in their ties is that they respect each other, seek consensus while putting aside their differences, focus on win-win cooperation and leverage their respective strengths for mutual benefit, Xi said.

As long as they stick to consolidating their mutual trust, treating each other as equals and focusing on cooperation, bilateral ties will have new development, he added.

Xi expressed hope that Germany could push for the EU to adopt a correct China policy so that the EU will objectively view its differences with China, and rationally deal with disparities in order to help China-EU relations develop healthily.

Merkel said that she stands ready to maintain close communication with the Chinese side to advance Germany-China and EU-China relations.

Noting that the EU-China investment agreement is mutually beneficial, she expressed hope that the agreement could be approved and take effect as soon as possible.

She also said Germany wants to intensify vaccine cooperation with China.

The two leaders also exchanged views about the Afghanistan situation.

Merkel said that Germany wants to strengthen communication and coordination with China on the Afghan issue under the multilateral framework, including the United Nations.

Xi explained China's position on the Afghanistan situation, saying that Beijing advocates coexistence and mutual learning among different civilizations and opposes interference in other countries' domestic affairs.

China is willing to work along with the international community, including Germany, to make constructive efforts to help Afghanistan truly realize peace and stability, he added.