China reaches out to Germany to ease worries about eastern Europe foray

Foreign Minister Wang Yi has pledged to get Germany involved in China’s infrastructure projects in central and eastern Europe, as Beijing tries to allay Berlin’s concerns about its initiatives in the region.

In a meeting with his German counterpart Heiko Maas in Berlin on Thursday, Wang said Beijing was considering trilateral cooperation with Germany and the central and eastern European countries in the “16+1” grouping led by China, and he also suggested other EU nations could take part.

Germany has been critical of China’s activities in these countries. In a speech to the Bundestag last month, Maas named China as one of the factors threatening to divide the European Union. In February, his predecessor Sigmar Gabriel went further, saying China would succeed in dividing the EU without a shared European strategy to prevent it.

That month, German Chancellor Angela Merkel also visited Macedonia – a 16+1 member and a country that hopes to join the EU – where she raised concerns that China’s economic activities in the Balkans might be linked to political questions.

Offering to boost cooperation, Wang told Maas he hoped for a more united Europe, adding that “the weakening and division of Europe is completely out of line with Chinese interests”.