Angela Merkel and Xi Jinping meet to lay foundations for G20 talks

Chinese President Xi Jinping has met with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and later he will travel to Hamburg to attend G20 summit.

Berlin, July 5: Fresh from talks in Russia, China's President Xi Jinping met German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday-a preamble to the much-talked about G20 summit on Friday.

Merkel will enlist Chinese assistance to "promote global economic governance", particularly on climate change and free trade-two areas that will take centre-stage at the G20. Germany had previously worked with the United States to promote these causes, but President Trump's "America First" inward-looking agenda have Germany searching for alternative great power partners to help push for internationalist policies.

Later talking at the meet, Chinese President Xi Jinping has met with German Chancellor Angela Merkel saying his country supports the European Union (EU) to be "united, stable, prosperous and open", a media report said.

Xi on Tuesday stressed that China and the EU were two important world powers and enjoyed a comprehensive strategic partnership. The Chinese leader said the more complicated the international situation was, the more significant the stable development of China-EU relations would become, Xinhua news agency reported.

Calling on the EU to build partnerships of peace, growth, reform and civilization with China, Xi said he hoped the China-Germany relations could play both leading and stabilizing roles.

The Chinese President arrived in Berlin on Tuesday for his second state visit to Germany.

It is the second stop of Xi's ongoing European tour which also took him to Russia.

During his stay in Germany, he would also travel to Hamburg to attend the G20 summit.

(with agency reports)