China, Germany pledge closer political, economic cooperation

China and Germany on Friday laid out a detailed action plan with concrete efforts to forge a closer partnership on the political and economic fronts.
The document, a guideline for bilateral cooperation in the medium and long terms, was issued during Chinese Premier Li Keqiang's ongoing official visit to the European economic powerhouse.
Calling each other "the most important cooperation partner in their respective regions," China and Germany agreed to maintain frequent exchanges of high-level visits and close communication through bilateral and multilateral channels.
Stressing that the governmental consultation mechanism established in 2010 has played an essential coordinating role in promoting bilateral cooperation, the two governments agreed that the consultations should be held biennially in principle.
In order to enhance coordination on foreign policy and security, the two sides decided to launch an annual strategic dialogue on diplomatic and security affairs, with the first session to be carried out next year.
Meanwhile, the two sides agreed to hold regular consultations on cyber issues to promote mutual trust and cooperation in cyber security, with the next round of bilateral cyber consultations to be held early next year in China.
The two governments also voiced support for strengthening cooperation on counter-surveillance and protection of online communication.
On the economic front, the document said China and Germany are committed to reaching a China-EU investment agreement with high targets, which will serve as the foundation of negotiations for a China-EU free trade agreement in the future.
The two countries welcomed the extension of the A320 final assembly line project in China's northern city of Tianjin for 10 years and the transformation of the Tianjin assembly line into a production line of A320neo aircraft since 2018.
China and Germany will also support each other in both technology and financing for the transformation and upgrading of energy supply, and encourage dialogue and cooperation between their governments and companies.
Underlining the significance of industrial digitization, also known as "industry 4.0," to the future development of the Chinese and German economies, the two countries pointed out that enterprises shall play a leading role in promoting the process, with the two governments providing policy support.
An intergovernmental dialogue on "industry 4.0" will be established between the two partners, which have also decided to conduct more systematic and strategic cooperation with a focus on future industries including electric automobile, high-efficiency intelligent energy control, water supply and sewage treatment.
Meanwhile, the two countries agreed to seize the opportunity of China being a partner country for CeBIT 2015 in the German city of Hanover to deepen cooperation in such fields as mobile Internet, Internet of Things, cloud computing and big data.
Li arrived here Thursday for a three-day official visit to Germany, the first leg of his three-nation tour, which will later take him to Russia and Italy.