Li Keqiang holds talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel

On July 9 , Chinese Premier Li Keqiang urged here Monday Beijing and Berlin to jointly promote free and fair trade so as to boost global trade growth and continued recovery of the world economy.

In face of growing uncertainties and destabilizing factors of international situations, China and Germany, both world major economies, should deepen bilateral and multilateral cooperation to send positive signals of supporting free and fair trade and safeguarding a fair and just international order, Li said during talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

China is ready to develop its relations with Germany and promote cooperation in the spirit of mutual respect, equality, mutual understanding and accommodation as well as fair competition to better achieve win-win results, Li said, noting that China is promoting a new round of high-level opening up.

During the visit, the two sides, for the first time, reached agreements on raising a German automobile manufacturer's shares in the joint venture in China and giving a green light to the establishment of a large wholly-owned project by a German chemical enterprise in China.

This has reflected that China's measures of further opening up are being implemented, Li said.

The premier urged the two sides to grasp the opportunities of cooperation in intelligent manufacturing, autopilot, new energy-driven vehicles.

China would continue to step up its efforts to protect intellectual property rights, encourage voluntary technological exchanges among enterprises, and would not allow forced technology transfers, Li said.

Li added that he hopes the German side to treat Chinese investment in a fair and just manner, increase high-tech exports to China and expand market access for Chinese enterprises, he said.

Li also expressed China's willingness to cooperate with Germany in third party markets and open up broader market together, saying that China hoped the upcoming 20th China-European Union leaders' meeting would achieve positive fruits so that both sides can jointly produce positive progress in negotiations on a China-EU investment agreement.

Merkel noted that it is of increasing importance for Germany and China to push forward bilateral cooperation in such fields as economy, trade and technologies and to engage in frank and open communication against the backdrop of the current international circumstances.

The German side is delighted to see that China's further opening-up measures have been first implemented in China-German cooperation. Chinese enterprises are welcome to invest in Germany, she said.

Germany would like to expand bilateral people-to-people exchanges with China as 2019 marks the year for Germany-China cultural exchanges.

Merkel also said Germany supports a joint declaration of the coming China-EU leader's meeting, and voiced her country's expectation for an early progress in talks on China-EU investment agreement.

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