Xi's visit to Russia, Germany enhances ties, attendance of G20 summit strengthen

（Xinhua photo）

Chinese President Xi Jinping's latest visit to Russia and Germany contributed to promoting China's relations with Russia and Germany, and his attendance of Group of 20 (G20) summit enhanced cooperation, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said here on Saturday.

Xi payed state visits to Russia and Germany on July 3-6, and attended the G20 summit in Hamburg on July 7-8.

The visit to Russia promoted bilateral comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination and pragmatic cooperation to a higher level, and the visit to Germany drove further development of China-Germany and China-Europe relations, Wang said.

Meanwhile, Xi's attendance of the G20 summit in Hamburg injected new impetus into global economic governance, added Wang.

VISIT TO RUSSIA

China and Russia are good neighbors, good friends and good partners, and bilateral ties are currently in their best time in history, which sets a model of relations between major countries as well as between neighboring countries, Wang said.

The visit contributed to maintaining the momentum of high-level exchange between the two countries and injected new impetus into the development of bilateral ties, he added.

During his 26-hour compact visit that kicked off on Monday, Xi met with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin and Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. The leaders had in-depth discussions on deepening bilateral ties and promoting cooperation in various fields.

They reached consensus on a series of major issues, spelling out new strategic guidance to China-Russia comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination, Wang said.

During the visit, Xi was awarded by Putin the highest order of Russia, known as the Order of St. Andrew the Apostle the First-Called.

The Chinese president stressed that the two countries should continue to deepen political and strategic mutual trust, while Putin pointed out that the high-level mutual trust and complete cooperation mechanisms are enormous advantages in Russia-China relations, Wang recalled.

During the visit, the two countries agreed to strengthen support to each other in issues concerning each other's core interests.

The two heads of state signed a joint statement on further deepening the China-Russia comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination and ratified the 2017-2020 implementation guideline for the China-Russia Treaty of Good-Neighborliness, Friendship and Cooperation, which made an overall planning for the development of bilateral relations, Wang said.

The Russian leaders stressed on many occasions that Russia would exert all efforts to support the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative, and expressed willingness to promote the development and prosperity of Eurasia, Wang said.

The two sides will continue to practically promote the alignment of the Belt and Road construction with the Russia-led Eurasian Economic Union, accelerate negotiations between China and the Euraasian Economic Union on economic and trade cooperation, actively explore cooperation on the Northern Sea Route and jointly build a "Silk Road on Ice."

The two sides agreed to deepen pragmatic cooperation in the fields of economy and trade, investment, energy, aerospace, inter-connectivity, regional development and agriculture, and carry out a number of major cooperation projects.

Meanwhile, the two sides agreed to give priority to communication, coordination and strategic cooperation in dealing with major, important or difficult issues, Wang said.

The two sides will join other countries in safeguarding international balance and strategic stability, jointly responding to terrorist threats, promoting political solutions to regional hotspot issues, building an inclusive global economy and making complete the global governance system, he added.

In the development of bilateral relations, China and Russia have kept deepening their comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination on the basis of non-alliance, non-confrontation and not targeting third countries, which is becoming a paradigm for new-type relations between major countries, and which demonstrates powerful vigor and vitality as well as enormous development potential, Wang said.

VISIT TO GERMANY

During the July 4-6 visit, Xi met with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin to review bilateral ties and discuss guidelines for the promotion of China-Germany comprehensive strategic partnership.

The two sides set targets for the development of bilateral ties in the next five years, and reached new consensus on promoting political mutual trust, deepening pragmatic cooperation, enriching cultural exchange and strengthening international cooperation, said Wang.

They also agreed to make a good use of bilateral communication mechanisms including government consultation, diplomacy, security, finance and economy, and culture, attend to each other's concerns and properly handle their differences, to further lift China-Germany relations to a higher level.

The Chinese president called on both sides to synergize "Made in China 2025" and Germany's "Industry 4.0" so as to unleash potential for innovation when the two nations' manufacturing strengths are combined with the Internet, said Wang.

Xi and Merkel agreed to step up bilateral cooperation within the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative so as to share the enormous market opportunities brought about by inter-connectivity between Asia and Europe.

Encouraging more robust people-to-people exchange between the Chinese and the Germans, Xi and his wife Peng Liyuan, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel jointly attended the ceremony to inaugurate a newly built Panda garden in the Berlin Zoo, and watched a friendly football match between youth teams of the two countries.

Xi's visit to Germany also produced positive impact on the deepening of China's overall cooperation with Europe.

China supports the EU to be "united, stable, prosperous and open," Xi noted during the visit, urging both sides to actively make efforts to build a partnership featuring peace, growth, reform and civilization.

Xi's visit to Germany this time is the third by the Chinese leader to Europe in less than seven months. It is believed that the visits in such a frequency have not only injected lasting drive force into China-Europe relations, but has also brought about optimism over the prospect of Europe's development, Wang said.

ATTENDANCE OF G20 SUMMIT

Working together with the other participants, Xi made efforts to promote positive progress at the Hamburg summit on the basis of the G20's summit held last year in Hangzhou, China, and made new contributions to strengthening cooperation within the G20, promoting global economic growth and improving global economic governance, Wang said.

Xi made it clear that the G20 should adhere to taking the path of open development and mutual benefit leading to all-win results, support a multilateral trade mechanism, and promote international trade and investment, Wang said.

In order to strengthen global economic governance toward achievement of a sound performance of the world economy, Xi proposed continued reenforcement of macro policy coordination, restructuring of international financial institutions and improvement of global financial supervision, etc.

To maintain sound development of the G20, Xi emphasized the importance of upholding the spirit of partnership among G20 members, and called for seeking common ground while reserving differences in order to step up cooperation, which prompted the Hamburg summit to reach consensus, and which maintained the international community's confidence in the group.

At the Hamburg summit, Xi participated in various discussions on the world economic situation, trade, finance, digital economy, energy, climate change, development, Africa, public health, refugee and migration issues, the fight against terrorism and others, elaborating China's concepts and solutions and vigorously pushing forward international cooperation.

Xi reiterated that the concepts such as openness, cooperation, all-win results, joint consultation, joint construction and sharing advocated in the Belt and Road Initiative are compatible with the G20's partnership spirit, and that they are complementary to one another and can jointly boost world economic development, Wang said.

On the sidelines of the Hamburg summit, Xi also launched a series of activities of summit diplomacy, Wang said.

Xi hosted an informal meeting of BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) leaders to prepare for the BRICS summit to be held in September in southeast China's Xiamen city.

Xi met with U.S. President Donald Trump to deepen cooperation based on mutual benefit between China and the United States, and the two sides agreed to well manage their differences. They also exchanged views on major hot-spot issues such as the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula, affirming a peaceful solution to it.

During his first meeting with South Korean President Moon Jae-in, Xi stressed South Korea should value and properly handle China's justifiable concerns. The two leaders agreed to work together to improve bilateral relations and maintain regional stability.

Xi urged Japan to make efforts to improve bilateral ties during his meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Xi also reached new consensuses on building political mutual trust and deepening bilateral and multilateral cooperation with French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Theresa May at separate meetings on the sidelines of the summit.