On Tuesday, April 16, 2024, German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz said that he hoped Berlin and Beijing could help achieve a “just peace” in Ukraine.
This came as he met President Xi Jinping in the Chinese capital as part of a three-day visit to China.
He arrived in China on Sunday, April 14, 2024.
His tour has taken him to the southwestern megacity of Chongqing, economic powerhouse Shanghai and now Beijing.
Meeting with Xi at Beijing’s Diaoyutai State Guesthouse on Tuesday, Scholz told the Chinese President that he hoped to discuss “how we can contribute more to a just peace in Ukraine.”
According to a recording provided by the Chancellor’s office, Scholz told Xi that the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine and Russia’s armament “have a very significant negative impact on security in Europe.”
“They directly affect our core interests,” he told Xi, adding they “damage the entire international order because they violate a principle of the United Nations Charter.”
He also touched on areas where he said that the two countries could cooperate, including climate change.
On his part, Xi laid out what state media described as “four principles to prevent the Ukraine crisis from spiralling out of control and to restore peace.”
Xi urged nations to focus on “the upholding of peace and stability and refrain from seeking selfish gains” as well as to “cool down the situation and not add fuel to the fire.”
“We need to create conditions for the restoration of peace and refrain from further exacerbating tensions,” Xi added, while aiming to “reduce the negative impact on the world economy”.
The “four principles” echoed a Beijing paper produced last year that called for a “political settlement” to the conflict, which Western countries said could enable Russia to hold much of the territory it has seized in Ukraine.
China and Russia declared a “no limits” partnership in February 2022 when Russia’s President, Vladimir Putin, visited Beijing just days before he launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
It was reported that Scholz later met Premier Li Qiang.
He is also expected to sit down with a German-Chinese economic committee and hold an evening press conference.
Mutually Beneficial Cooperation Not A Risk
Scholz’s visit comes as many of Germany’s Western allies confront China on a range of trade issues.
“Derisking” has also emerged as a core theme of the EU’s economic policy towards China.
However, speaking to Scholz, Xi averred, “Mutually beneficial cooperation between China and Germany is not a “risk”, but a guarantee for the stability of bilateral relations and an opportunity to create a future.”
He emphasised that the “industrial and supply chains of China and Germany are deeply embedded in each other.”
Chinese state media reported that Xi highlighted the importance of ties in the face of “increasing risks and challenges.”
“China and Germany are the second and third largest economies in the world,” Xi was quoted as saying.
“The two countries should view and develop bilateral relations from a long-term and strategic perspective and work together to inject more stability and certainty into the world,” the Chinese leader added.
“China’s exports of electric vehicles, lithium batteries and photovoltaic products have not only enriched global supply and alleviated inflationary pressure, but also contributed greatly to the response to climate change and green and low-carbon transformation.”
Xi Jinping
“(Germany and China) should be vigilant against rising protectionism, look at the issue of production capacity objectively and dialectically from a market-oriented and global perspective,” Xi added.
