Chinese President Xi Jinping and German Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke by phone yesterday, Xinhua reported, to discuss cooperation on fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. Xi told Merkel that “China stands ready to strengthen exchanges and cooperation with Germany on COVID-19 vaccines and push for the vaccines to be fairly distributed as a global public good, especially for the benefit of developing countries…. Currently, with Europe and some other regions in the world facing the test of a second wave of the pandemic, it remains a top priority for all parties to work together to fight the epidemic, Xi stressed.”
Merkel responded, according to the Xinhua account: “The fact that China has done a good job in COVID-19 prevention and control and taken the lead in economic recovery is good news for German enterprises, she said, expressing the hope that the two sides will increase communication on vaccine cooperation and push forward cooperation in such fields as trade, investment and new-energy vehicles. The German side, she added, congratulates China on having signed the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership trade deal with relevant parties, and hopes to step up efforts with China to push for concluding negotiations on the EU-China investment treaty by the end of this year.”
