Innovative diplomacy
- By Bai Shi
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E-mail Beijing Review, October 20, 2014
At the seventh Sino-German Forum for Economic and Technological Cooperation on October 10, Li presented a small gift to Merkel—the Lu Ban Lock—which is a traditional Chinese puzzle.
The metal Lu Ban Lock was made by three Chinese students of Tianjin Sino-German Vocational and Technical College with a German-brand machine tool. Lu Ban was the originator of the handicraft industry and a great inventor in ancient China.
The gift symbolizes Li's wish to combine Chinese wisdom with German technologies and advance the common development of the two giant manufacturing countries, Xinhua News Agency commented.
Feng Zhongping, Deputy Dean of the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, said that the emphasis on innovation cooperation and the new action plan shows the strong willingness for cooperation by Chinese and German
leaderships as well as the broad common interests of the two countries.
Innovation was also highlighted during Li's visit to Russia and Italy. The Chinese premier attended an international forum themed open innovation in Moscow on October 14. In Italy, he attended the "innovation week" meeting with Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi.
The innovation partnership is not exclusive to Germany, Cui said. He added that China's call to building innovative bilateral relations covers a broad space and other European countries can benefit from the new partnership.
Since he assumed office as Chinese premier, Li has continually emphasized the crucial role of innovation in China's development.
In May, Li vowed to make innovation the strong impetus for driving the Chinese economy to upgrade, in his speech at the opening ceremony of the third annual meeting of the Global Research Council in Beijing.
Diversified cooperation
Li's visit to Russia saw the signing of 39 cooperation agreements in broad fields between the two countries, including natural gas supply, high-speed railway construction, currency swap, high technology and finance.
Chen Yurong, Director of the Department of Eura-Asia Research under the CIIS, told Xinhua News Agency that China-Russia cooperation is not limited to energy.
China's central bank has signed a currency swap agreement worth 150 billion yuan ($24 billion) with the Russian central bank, which will facilitate bilateral trade and investment between China and Russia.
Deepening cooperation on finance and currency is a major direction for China and Russia at present. With this agreement, enterprises of the two countries are able to complete transactions more conveniently, Chen said.
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