BEIJING: Germany and China signed agreements to strengthen coordination in banking, finance and capital markets, and pledged to further open market access and deepen cooperation to broaden economic ties.
The agreements were reached after a two-day visit to Beijing by German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz for talks with Vice Premier Liu He, who is President Xi Jinping’s top economic adviser.
Both sides reaffirmed that “they will strengthen macroeconomic policy coordination and pragmatic cooperation in the fiscal and financial fields and expand strategic cooperation,” according to a joint statement after the talks.
Trade between the two nations has softened amid uncertainty caused by the U.S.-China trade war, but both have shown a willingness to demonstrate that the world remains multilateral.
They agreed to work to improve international economic governance, maintain the global multilateral system, fight trade protectionism and support a rule-based multilateral trading system through the World Trade Organization.
“It is important that, contrary to recent trends that we can observe elsewhere, we are seeing progress in our cooperation,” Scholz told reporters before the talks at the Diaoyutai State Guest House in the Chinese capital.
