On the evening of January 25, 2017, Premier Li Keqiang held telephone talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany at request. The Chinese Premier and the German Chancellor extended Lunar New Year greetings to each other and mainly exchanged views on China-Germany relations, China-EU relations, the current international and regional situations as well as topics of common concern.
Li Keqiang expressed that China-Germany relations have maintained high-level development momentum over the past year, and bilateral cooperation has achieved fruitful outcomes. At present, the international political and economic situations are confronted with increasing uncertain and unstable factors. China and Germany should advance trade and investment liberalization and facilitation by enhancing cooperation, so as to send a stable and predictable signal to the market and jointly safeguard the existing international system and order. The Chinese side is willing to intensify communication and coordination with Germany to push the G20 Hamburg Summit for success.
Li Keqiang pointed out that China pays close attention to the development of European situation, and will always and firmly support the European integration. The Chinese side hopes that Europe will maintain its stability and prosperity and looks forward to working with the EU side to promote greater development of China-EU relations. It is hoped that the German side could continue to promote the EU to fulfill its commitments in Article 15 of the Protocol on China's Accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) at an early date.
Angela Merkel noted that Germany stands ready to, together with China, maintain high-level exchanges in the coming year, deepen cooperation in economy, trade, new energy, electric vehicles, the third-party market and many other fields as well as cooperation within the G20 framework, reinforce international cooperation and jointly send a positive signal of resolving global issues through multilateralism to the outside. Highly appreciating China's support in the European integration, the German side is willing to further advance the EU to fulfill its relevant commitments on the Protocol on China's Accession to WTO and hopes that the negotiation on China-EU investment agreement will be completed as soon as possible.