On March 28 local time, President Xi Jinping met with President Joachim Gauck of Germany in Berlin. The two sides had a frank and in-depth exchange of views on China-Germany relations and topics of common interests.

Prior to the meeting, President Gauck held welcome ceremony for Xi Jinping at the Presidential Palace. When Xi Jinping and his wife Mme. Peng Liyuan arrived, Gauck walked up to greet them. The two heads of state respectively introduced the accompanying officials to each other and stepped on the reviewing stand. The military band played the national anthems of both China and Germany. Xi Jinping, accompanied by Gauck, reviewed the Guard of Honor and shook hands with the teenagers waving the national flags of the two countries at the ceremony.

During the meeting, Xi Jinping said, since the establishment of the diplomatic relationship between China and Germany, the state leaders of the two countries have kept to the positive direction of China-Germany relations and forged an interest community always from a strategic and long-term perspective and on the basis of the converging interests of the two peoples, enabling China-Germany cooperation to grow increasingly extensive and close until today. The two countries have maintained close high-level exchanges, and established dozens of long-term dialogue and exchange mechanisms, which have played an important role in promoting mutual understanding and bilateral cooperation.

Xi Jinping stressed, to keep sustained and stable development of China-Germany relations, the two countries should, first, increasingly enhance mutual understanding and political mutual trust, and always respect each other's core interests and major concerns, which is the key; second, the two sides should continuously strengthen all-dimensional practical cooperation, which is the backbone; third, the two countries should constantly enhance mutual understanding and friendly feelings between their peoples, which is the basis.

Gauck said that China is a great nation, which in the past suffered from the domestic trouble and foreign invasions, but today is profoundly changing the world with its people enjoying prosperity. Germany admires the great achievements China has made, pays great attention to the Chinese Dream, wishes China success in reform, innovation and development, and believes that China will achieve greater success. Germany is willing to actively participate in China's process of modernization, strengthen practical cooperation between the two countries and jointly deal with various problems and challenges in the 21st century. Despite different systems between Germany and China, the two countries can enhance mutual understanding and learn from each other through dialogues and exchanges.

Xi Jinping stressed, the achievements China scores nowadays are essentially attributed to our choice of a development path conform to our own national conditions and with Chinese characteristics. The Communist Party of China and the Chinese government set up the goal of always improving the welfare and happiness of 1.3 billion Chinese people. Since the reform and opening-up, China has been trying hard to achieve the goal, and will continue to do so. China has always maintained an open attitude toward all civilizations, and is willing to, on the basis of equality and mutual respect, conduct dialogues and exchanges with other countries, including Germany, to learn from each other and achieve common progress.

Wang Huning, Li Zhanshu, Yang Jiechi and others were present.