(Adds Qin Gang’s remarks from the press conference)
BEIJING, April 14 (Reuters) – China stands ready to work with Germany on economic and trade fronts, and the two countries are partners, not adversaries, its Foreign Minister Qin Gang said on Friday.
At a joint press conference with his German counterpart Annalena Baerbock, Qin said it would be counterproductive to artificially slow down normal economic and trade cooperation.
Regarding the situation with Taiwan, Qin said if countries want to respect the one-China principle, then the right step is to firmly oppose Taiwan’s independence.
China recently held military exercises in Taiwan and said it has tested integrated military capabilities in actual combat conditions, practicing precision strikes and blockading the island Beijing regards as its own.
Referring to Ukraine, Qin said China stands ready to continue working for peace and hopes all parties involved in the crisis will remain matter-of-fact and calm and work together.
“One point I would like to emphasize is that China’s role in the Ukraine issue, our proposal, boils down to one thing, which is to persuade and facilitate talks, and we will do nothing to add fuel to the fire ‘ said Qin. (Reporting by Beijing Newsroom; Writing by Bernard Orr; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)
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