Hu's visit to Germany has great significance
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2005-11-10 14:55

BERLIN -- Chinese President Hu Jintao's visit to Germany from Thursday to Sunday is of great realistic significance to the future development of Sino-German ties, Chinese Ambassador to Germany Ma Canrong said.

In an exclusive interview with Xinhua on Tuesday, Ma said that Hu would meet old and new friends during his visit here as Germany is changing government.

Thus the visit would play a role of linking the past with the future in bilateral relations, said Ma.

Since inconclusive elections on Sept. 18, designated chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union/Christian Social Union (CDU/CSU) and the outgoing Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's Social Democratic Party (SPD) have been in negotiations on the formation of a grand coalition government, which is expected to bein place at the end of the month.

Currently, Sino-German ties "have witnessed all-around progress and been fruitful," Ma noted, saying Germany has been sticking to the one-China policy and served as an important and reliable partner in China's course of constructing a well-off society.

Besides, the two countries share extensive interests in the complicated international situation of globalization and multi-polarization, he added.

"All these have laid a solid political foundation for the development of bilateral ties," Ma said.

Meanwhile, Ma admitted that due to different social systems, ideology and values, the two countries have different opinions on some issues, but both sides pay great attention to expanding consensus, narrowing gaps and avoiding confrontation through dialogue and communications.

Sino-German relations "are in the best period of time since the establishment of diplomatic ties" in 1972, the ambassador concluded.

The volume of bilateral trade, having reached 54.2 billion US dollars last year and expected to exceed 60 billion dollars this year, has surpassed the total amount that China has had with Britain, France and Italy, accounting for one third of China-EU trade.

During the first eight months of this year, bilateral trade hasincreased 14 percent over the same period last year.

German investment in China has constantly expanded, topping other European countries, he said, adding that not only big Germancompanies, such as DaimlerChrysler and BASF, have boosted investment in China, medium and small ones are also planning to doso.

On the other side, Chinese companies have come to Germany and other European countries to start their business too, the ambassador said.

The two nations have good cooperation in areas such as personnel training, technology transfer and joint exploration of market in a third country. Their cooperation in such fields is significant to the future development of bilateral ties as technology, education and environment conservation is also fruitful, Ma said.

China and Germany have played an important role respectively inAsia and Europe, and are in different phases of development, therefore they can be fully complementary, he said.

It has turned out that constant development of bilateral relations are in the interests of both sides and that is the important reason why both sides highly value and look forward to Hu's visit to Germany, Ma said.

Germany's ruling and opposition parties share a common understanding on developing relationship with China, and thereforeno matter which party takes office, it will push forward the Sino-German relations in their national interests, the ambassador added.

He expressed the hope that the new government will make new efforts to maintain continuity of Germany's China policies to promote the relationship to a new level.