(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-01-23 07:20

The meeting of six foreign ministers in Berlin to discuss Iran's nuclear program has given China and Germany a chance to mend relations. Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi is meeting his German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier on the sidelines of the meeting.

China's relations with Germany are less essential to the world order than its ties with the US and Japan.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel's meeting with the Dalai Lama last year pushed Sino-German relations back a step, with all high-level contact suspended.

This, however, should not necessarily mean the two countries can afford to allow a rift to exist between them. The secret approaches they have taken to mend the rift are a case in point.

China has always viewed its relations with Germany from a strategic and long-term perspective. Though bilateral relations were frozen, China invited Merkel to join other world leaders in attending the Beijing Olympics.

The German foreign minister clarified the country's positions on both Taiwan and Tibet in a formal letter to China. The letter said Germany opposes any attempt to seek Tibet's independence and Taiwan leader Chen Shui-bian's plans for a referendum on whether Taiwan should join the United Nations.

It is important that the two countries have reached a consensus on moving the bilateral relationship forward.

Merkel's meeting with the Dalai Lama was obviously intended to please a domestic political audience. It is high time to let the mistake go.

A worsening relationship between China and Germany will affect trade. Germany is the country's largest trade partner in the European Union.

A situation in which the leaders of the two countries have absolutely no contact would be diplomatically unacceptable for both, especially Germany. Leaders from all over the world will gather in Beijing for the 2008 Olympics, and the China-EU summit is due in October.

So it is a no-win prospect for both.

German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel will visit Beijing and Guangdong province later this month, making him the first senior German official to visit China since the bilateral ties hit an impasse.

Sino-German relations are on the mend.

(China Daily 01/23/2008 page8)