Nation to deepen ties with Germany

China and Germany will deepen cooperation in the financial sector, senior officials from both countries said during their first high-level financial dialogue on Tuesday in Berlin.

Chinese Vice-premier Ma Kai and German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said the two sides agreed to strengthen macroeconomic policy coordination, develop policy dialogue and pursue fiscal and financial cooperation.

Germany has been China's largest trading partner in Europe since 2002. In 2013, bilateral trade reached $161.6 billion.

The dialogue was arranged during President Xi Jinping's visit to Germany last year. Its primary task is to implement agreements reached by leaders of the two countries, who signed a wide-ranging document calling for more than 100 cooperation agreements over the next five to 10 years.

Ma said that in the face of a "complex and fragile global economic situation", the two economies should deepen cooperation, especially in the financial sector.

According to China's official data, Germany is one of the largest investors in China. As of 2013, China had approved 8,193 German projects with investment of $21.8 billion. By that time, China's investment in Germany had reached $3.9 billion.

According to a joint statement issued after Tuesday's dialogue, Germany will support China in hosting the G20 summit in 2016, and it supports China's goal of adding the yuan to the special drawing rights currency basket of the International Monetary Fund.

At present, the basket is composed of the US dollar, the euro, the British pound and the yen. The basket is reviewed every five years, and the most recent review was in November 2010.

Germany also announced at the dialogue that it intended to join the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank as a prospective founding member, and China welcomed this intention.

Xinhua contributed to this story.