China's new premier visits Germany in first foreign trip

The German president hosted Chinese Premier Li Qiang at his official Berlin residence on Monday for the latter's first trip abroad since he took office in March.

The visit comes as Germany and its European allies are eyeing new strategies for dealing with an increasingly assertive China that has strong relations with Russia.

What happened at the meeting

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier stressed the importance of improved dialogue between China and the United States at the same time US Secretary of State Antony Blinken took a high-stakes trip to Beijing.

Steinmeier "called for the strengthening of communication channels between both countries," his spokeswoman Cerstin Gammelin tweeted after the meeting at Berlin's Bellevue Palace.

Gammelin said the president also called for China, under President Xi Jinping, to use its "political weight and influence on Russia to bring about a just peace" in Ukraine.

What else is happening on the trip?

A dinner for Li was planned with Chancellor Olaf Scholz later on Monday.

However, the heavy lifting of the visit will have to wait until so-called "government consultations" with Scholz's Cabinet on Tuesday.

Li is then set to head to France to attend a climate financing summit hosted by President Emmanuel Macron.

Questions over special relationship

Thanks to Beijing's economic might as an exporter, Germany has always enjoyed special ties with China.

Berlin took a pragmatic approach in its relations under former Chancellor Angela Merkel, emphasising economic opportunities while keeping criticism on human rights and freedoms mostly behind closed doors.

Germany's previous policy helped keep China as a key market while allowing Berlin to take in prominent human rights activists without any apparent retaliatory consequences.

The Covid-19 pandemic raised doubts about whether Germany was right to rely on such a distant partner with its own huge domestic needs for essentials.

Meanwhile, Russia's war on Ukraine has turned the approach of economic rapprochement on its head, prompting Western politicians to reassess its dependency on Russia for energy imports and question China's reliability.

China's refusal to distance itself from Russian President Vladimir Putin has led to mounting tensions in the West over Beijing's motives.