Work together for cooperative world order

The fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War in 1990 ushered in a huge new wave of globalization. Looking back after 25 years, we can now see that this development produced a number of clear winners. China is definitely among them: It started off with a GDP the size of Belgium. Now its economy is three times the size of Germany's. Germany also gained enormously. It gained freedom, peace and security and it seized new economic opportunities, not least in China. Our trade with China is twice the size of China's trade with Russia and several times the size of China's trade with any other European country.

When the world looks at China and Germany, there are parallels that are striking. The world sees two behemoths of manufacturing, of huge exports, two countries with a hard-working population, a strong emphasis on educational merit, and two cultures that value saving for the future and long-term planning over a "buy now, pay later" mentality.

There is no doubt that the global order is changing dramatically and that particularly China plays a crucial part in this process. Both Germany and China have enormous gains to defend in this changing world order. In the coming years, we should seize opportunities to create a new quality in our relations.