Op-Ed Contributors

Merkel seals strategic gains

By Yu Xiang (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-07-22 07:53

At the same time, Germany's economic development and ongoing industrial restructuring also needs a broad overseas market such as China's.

Despite the boom seen in recent years, China and Germany should not base their ties on the economic and trade elements alone. A purely economic and trade cooperation can be easily swayed by politics and negative public opinion on both sides.

In the post-crisis era, the two countries should try to explore new areas beyond economic and trade cooperation to further advance bilateral ties. The signing of a joint communiqu during Merkel's visit, which pushed for a mutual strategic partnership, is expected to serve as a political pillar to prop up bilateral ties in future.

The second such document in 38 years demonstrates that both countries have remained particularly cautious about developing ties with the other. It also indicates that the time is now ripe for China and Germany to set up a strategic partnership in the midst of the world's ongoing political and strategic adjustment.

China and Germany have both fully realized that they should look at bilateral ties from a global and strategic perspective.

The establishment of a mechanism for regular high-level meetings and consultations between the two countries is expected to enhance mutual trust, ease misgivings and further elevate bilateral ties in an all-round manner.

Enhanced mutual political trust is also expected to help increase people-to-people exchanges and aid citizens on both sides in achieving better understanding of the other.

As two important players in the international arena, the significance of Sino-German relations has gone beyond the purely bilateral.

In the post-crisis era, no single country, however powerful, will be able to resolve such global issues as climate change, nuclear proliferation, terrorism, poverty and imbalanced development. To settle such major concerns, multilateral mechanisms such as the G20 are clearly needed.

Against this backdrop, China and Germany should further strengthen bilateral exchanges and consultations and further deepen mutual cooperation, which will not only help add to the stability of a multi-polarized world, but will also improve the efficiency of tackling a series of issues of global significance.

An ever-deepening relationship between China and Germany will also set a good example for China's ties with other European Union (EU) members. As an important part of China-EU ties, a healthy and stable relationship with Germany will produce positive influences on the country's broader ties with the bloc.

Sino-German strategic partnership will step into a new stage and contribute to world harmony if the two countries work hard according to the direction mapped out by the joint communiqu, and enhance mutual trust, boost bilateral economic and trade cooperation, and enrich people-to-people exchanges.

The author is a research fellow with the Institute of European Studies, China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations.

(China Daily 07/22/2010 page8)